


Avatar: Unsung Heroes

by Emilybells



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen, OCs - Freeform, Original Cast, Pre-Aang, shadowbending
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-17
Updated: 2014-10-17
Packaged: 2018-02-21 12:30:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 42,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2468249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emilybells/pseuds/Emilybells
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ellire and Naka, a couple of con artists, flee to the Earth Kingdom to escape Fire Nation law enforcement. In her dreams, Ellire is visited by a mysterious spirit who offers to teach her a skill that has been lost over time: shadowbending. (Pre-Aang, original cast.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Art of Conning

Ka-boom!

Along with a series of small explosions the array of fireballs burst open, spilling out their contents into an illusion of miniature fireworks. Bits of glowing ember rained down around the wooden stage for a brief moment before disappearing into nothingness again. The crowd below roared with delight as two girls took center stage grabbed each others hands, swinging them along into a bow.

Both dressed alike in color scheme, the first and slightly taller of the two girls had reddish-brown hair and hazel eyes that were slightly more green than brown. She wore a burnt yellow and white outfit, its edges contrasted with shades of pale red. Around her neck was a sky blue beaded necklace, its color matching that of the shorts she wore underneath a skirt that tied around. She was called Naka and, contrary to popular belief, actually an airbender. In fact, about half of their magician’s act was based off of the illusion of having two firebenders when really one of the girls wasn’t even a firebender at all. But more on that later.

Although hard to believe, Ellire was actually the oldest of the two and the real firebender in the performance. She had long, wavy brown hair with matching eyes and adorned herself with an orange headband, shoes, and sleeves. Her shirt and skirt were a matching shade of red, an image of blue and yellow flames climbing their way up towards the bottom.

The two benders exchanged glances, beaming as the crowd of onlookers continued to whistle and cheer. A red velvet curtain blew in front of them and they broke character, panting. Quite literally squealing with pride, Naka leapt forward and hugged onto Ellire, whose eyes widened in surprise.

“That was great! Did you see how many faces there were out there?” she exclaimed.

Ellire smiled back, wiggling her way out of her friend’s embrace. “I did indeed. It’s a good thing we didn’t mess up.”

“I don’t know, the first couple of times we tried that flaming sword trick I was afraid you were going to burn the entire stage to the ground!” Naka laughed.

Ellire frowned. “Me? I just keep the thing lit and draw in the audience’s attention; you’re the one who actually keeps it up in the air and is supposed to bring it down safely so that I can--” The firebender paused, taking another glance in Naka’s direction as she calmed herself down. “Y’know what, never mind. It was a good run back there.”

Naka sat herself down on the ledge behind the stage as her partner jumped down next to her. “I still don’t think it’d hurt to keep a couple of waterbenders nearby,” she mused. “Just in case!” Naka quickly added after having received a stern glare from over Ellire’s shoulder. She sighed and looked up towards the sky. “Hey, Elle?”

Ellire cringed. She’d never liking the nickname, but if she couldn’t get Naka to cut it out in the amount of time that they’d known each other there was no use trying now. “Yes?” she answered, starting to pack several of their magic show’s props back into a large trunk that was set off towards the side of the makeshift theater.

“Do you ever wonder what Blaise is up to?”

Ellire froze, still bent over. “Pardon?”

“You know, Blaise,” Naka repeated herself. “I mean, we haven’t seen or heard from her in months now, so I couldn’t help but... wonder...”

She stood up again, frowning. “Who cares? She got what she had coming.”

The airbender tilted her head to the side, somewhat concerned by this unfeeling response. “Elle... that’s not a very nice way to look at it. After all, she WAS our friend before we--”

“Friends don’t tell other friends how to live their life!”

Naka had been cut off mid-sentence, her mouth still hanging slightly ajar. She closed it again, turning her attention down towards the ground. Ellire’s hands had instinctively clenched themselves into fists, glowing slightly as if she were preparing to launch an attack. After a moment of silence she loosened them again, the fiery glow vanishing back into her palms.

“I’m sorry. I... I didn’t mean to snap like that. You didn’t do anything wrong, Naka.”

The younger girl shook her head slowly, still looking away. “No, it’s my fault. I shouldn’t have brought her up.”

The truth was, the gang of street performers that currently travelled from town to town putting on a little magic show used to consist of one more firebender: Blaise, as ironic a name as it was (which could explain her love of corny puns). In fact, they’d been a trio for almost as long as any of the girls could remember until about a year ago, when Ellire and Naka had felt that she was beginning to act a little too much like the group’s leader for her own good.

“Ellire! Naka!”

The silence was broken by the voice of a girl that had to have been a good several years younger than the performers. She came bounding over, her short, light brown hair and bangs bouncing as she ran. Her eyes were a clear blue beneath a pair of glasses and she was wearing a short green dress.

Silence.

“Those are your names... right?”

Naka jumped up quickly upon seeing the newcomer. “Um, yes!” she exclaimed. “I’m Naka, and this is Ellire. Or ‘Elle,’ if you think that’s easier to remember.”

“Call me Elle and I’ll burn you from the inside out.” Ellire replied flatly.

“Isn’t she just charming,” the girl mused sarcastically.

Naka shrugged. “Just give her some time and she’ll warm up to you. Eventually.”

Ellire twitched slightly in annoyance. “And you must be... Jin, was it?”

“Jairin,” the younger girl corrected. Ellire shrugged carelessly. Close enough, as far as she was concerned.

Naka looked back and forth at the two, confused. “Wait. You know each other?”

“Yup,” Ellire answered, giving a serious nod. “She’s the daughter of that guy I was talking to this morning, Mr. What’s-his-face.”

“Cole.”

It would seem Naka finally understood. “And we’re staying with their family during our stay here, then!”

“By George, I think she’s got it!” Ellire laughed aloud.

“Well, Jairin, did you get a chance to see the show?” Naka asked Mr. Cole’s daughter who smiled, nodding her head energetically. “Did you like it?”

“Like it?” Jairin repeated enthusiastically. “I loved it! You guys were amazing! I mean, I’ve certainly seen benders such as yourselves before, but nothing like that!”

Naka was grinning ear to ear. “You think so?”

Ellire rolled her eyes. “Wonderful. You have fun talking with your new fan, Naka. In the meantime I’m going to go find out how much we made on that last performance. Maybe if we’re lucky we’ll have enough to pick up a meal tonight,” she said sarcastically. “There’s nothing quite like performing on an empty stomach.”

“Oh! That’s what I came to talk to you about!” Jairin gasped. “Mom and Dad wanted to know if you were coming over for dinner.”

Both bender’s eyes lit up at the mere mention of food. “Are you for serious?” Ellire asked doubtfully. “Are you sure that’s okay with them?”

“Well, you kind of ARE our guests. I personally figure it would’ve been rude otherwise.”

Unable to contain herself, Naka threw her fist into the air with glee. “Whoohoo! We’re gonna get real food tonight, Elle!”

“Someone needs to calm down a tad,” Ellire chuckled, rolling her eyes at Naka yet again. “In that case, I’m going to finish packing some stuff up over here,” she informed Jairin. “We’ll meet you there in a bit.”

Jairin nodded before turning around and running off again in the opposite direction, waving back at them from behind her. “Okay, I’ll tell them you’re on your way!”

Naka stood watching her leave, an amused look across her face. “I like her.”

Ellire turned back towards the stage distractedly. “Don’t.”

“Why not?” Naka wrinkled her eyebrows, confused.

“Because,” Ellire explaining calmly, “it just makes things harder. Wouldn’t you agree?”

With a clank of metal coins Naka pulled down the tip jar and peered into it, slightly disappointed. Given the size of the crowd she had half expected to see three times that many. She set it down, sighing to herself. “I suppose you’re right. We’d best get ready for the second act tonight.”

Ellire turned over her shoulder and their eyes met, glittering with a shared train of thought. “I see I’ve taught you well. After all, the real magic starts after dark.”

 -x-

That night Naka and Ellire found themselves sitting around a rather extravagantly laid dinner table with Jairin and her parents. Naka eyed the food longingly as she was forced to hold hands with everyone else around the table, a steaming warm main course teasing her from only a couple feet away.

“Amen,” Mr. Cole said, opening his eyes again and lifting his head. The chain of linked hands quickly broke apart as the guests took the liberty of piling their plates high with more food than they probably could’ve even finished themselves. Mr. and Mrs. Cole exchanged worried glances but ultimately thought it best not to comment on anything.

“Oh! Thanks for inviting us over last minute like this,” Ellire said through a mouthful of food.

Mrs. Cole smiled weakly in response to their guests’ poor manners. “Anytime! My husband just loves travelers, don’t you dear?” She placed her hands against his arm and smiled up at the man pleasantly.

“But of course,” Mr. Cole responded. “It would seem we don’t get a lot of visitors passing through these parts, so most people in town love seeing new faces. Particularly those of skilled magicians, such as yourselves.”

Ellire blushed slightly at their host’s compliment and now it was Naka’s turn to roll her eyes in playful annoyance. Honestly, more often than not she wondered how both of their egos managed to fit into a room at the same time.

“And little Jairin was just so excited when she heard that your show was coming into town!” Mrs. Cole added, a cheery look on her face.

“Mom!” Jairin quickly shot a warning glance in her mother’s direction, as if embarrassed to even admit to such a thing. Mrs. Cole laughed quietly to herself.

“Well, it’s true!”

Jairin pouted as her father continued the conversation. “Y’know what Jairin said to me just this afternoon? She said she wanted to learn to bend just like you two!” Now Jairin tried to bury her face deep into her plate, completely and utterly embarrassed by those she called her parents.

On the other hand, both Naka and Ellire’s eyes lit up at this statement. Naka couldn’t help but want to clarify the meaning of it. “Wait, so you guys are benders, too?” Ellire sat back in her chair, squinting at the family somewhat. With their current attire they hardly looked dedicated to one specific element.

“No, just Jairin,” Mr. Cole made clear. “She’s an earthbender.”

Mrs. Cole shook her head proudly. “I just don’t know where she gets it!”

Jairin eyed both Mr. and Mrs. Cole distastefully, still looking a slightly pinker shade than usual. “It’s not that big a deal, guys,” she muttered under her breath, desperately wanting the attention to be dragged off of her so that they could perhaps learn more about the newcomers instead. However, that didn’t seem likely with the way the conversation was going thus far.

Ellire pursed her lips smugly, perhaps sizing the earthbender up as if anticipating a quick battle with her later. Naka and Ellire weren’t particularly great fighters, considering they’d spent years dedicating their bending mostly to the art of performing showy tricks, but for some unknown reason it made Ellire feel better to think that she could still take out a challenger or two if the time came.

Upon seeing this Jairin leaned back again, making a face. She couldn’t tell what the firebender was thinking but regardless of whatever it was it still made her feel uncomfortable.

“So! Jairin!” Naka finally chimed in, clapping her hands together happily. “Have you been taking bending lessons or whatever young benders do these days?”

Jairin shook her head sadly. “She used to go to a little school here a while back,” Mr. Cole explained, “but it shut down some years ago due to a lack of funding. As I’ve said before, there aren’t a lot of benders in this town, after all.”

“But we’re still trying to find Jairin a new teacher,” Mrs. Cole said determinedly. “She really does have the motivation to get better, and we’d help her if we knew how.”

Then Jairin stood up excitedly and gasped, her eyes wide. Everyone else looked up at her, startled by the sudden movement. “Maybe Naka could teach me how!” she squealed.

Ellire raised an eyebrow. “Naka? Why Naka? She’s not even an earthbender!”

Sitting down again and scooting her chair in, Jairin attempted to explain her epiphany. “I know that. I just figured, well, when you get down to the really basic stuff bending’s pretty much the same, just with different elements. Right?”

“Wrong.”

“And if that’s true, then even if Naka can’t earthbend I can still learn from her firebending!” Jairin smiled in Naka’s direction, expecting some kind of encouragement.

Ellire merely shook her head. “If that were true then why ask Naka to do it? I’m older, anyway. I could probably teach you just as well if not better.”

Naka glared at Ellire, muttering under her breath, “Are you seriously jealous?”

“No! Of course not,” she whispered back sourly and looked up at Jairin again. “But really. Why does it have to be Naka?”

Jairin shrugged thoughtfully. “No particular reason.”

“Seriously. Tell me.”

“No! Don’t worry about it.”

“You tell me right--”

“Okay!” Jairin finally gave in. “She just sorta comes off as... I don’t know, a nicer person than you?”

“...That’s it.” Ellire tried to stand up, an angry look flashing across her face, when Naka grabbed her arm and pulled her down into her seat again. Looking distastefully at Naka, Ellire flipped some of her hair back and tried a new approach. “Look, kid, I didn’t want to crush all of your hopes and dreams... but even if Naka wanted to teach you, she can’t.”

“Why not?” It would seem both Naka and Jairin had asked this at the same time.

“Because,” Ellire continued as matter-of-factly as she could, “Naka’s not a firebender. If you must know, she’s not even a bender at all!”

She then winced at a hard kick from under the table and glared back at Naka, whose disapproving face seemed to be asking where exactly she thought she was going with this. She shrugged, wanting the airbender to get off her back.

Jairin looked hurt. “W-What? But, that’s not possible... I saw her firebend! I saw it with my own eyes!”

Picking up her fork, Ellire took another bite calmly. “That’s why it’s called a magic trick. I’d hate to give away all of our secrets, as I think there’s some sort of magician’s code about it or whatever, but the fact that Naka can’t bend is half of the illusion right there. It’s all very complicated; I’d love to explain further, but I doubt you’d be able to keep up.”

Jairin turned her attention to Naka, who for the most part had been sitting there quietly. “Is this true?” she asked.

Naka looked up at Ellire, who didn’t say anything. She didn’t like the idea of lying to Jairin, but it wasn’t exactly like she could go back and fix it now without causing any more problems. “Yes,” she said, burying her chin in her hands.

Frowning disappointedly, Jairin hunched over in her seat, pressing an arm against her cheek and the table. She picked up a fork and began poking around at her plate, her appetite suddenly gone.

Mrs. Cole looked at her daughter worriedly. “Jairin, dear, you shouldn’t let yourself get so upset over that. I’m sure that Ellire would make just as good a teacher.”

“You should at least try finishing your food,” Mr. Cole commented as well. “Playing around with it isn’t helping anyone.”

Jairin put her silverware down on top of her plate and sighed. “It’s fine. I’m not hungry anymore.” She then got up and hurried up a flight of stairs behind her, making her way towards her room.

Mr. Cole frowned. “Jairin! You weren’t dismissed, young lady! And you forgot to clear the table on top of everything!”

“It’s all right, I’ll take care of it.” Mrs. Cole said, standing up with her empty plate in one hand and picking up Jairin’s in the other. Mr. Cole got up as well and followed her into the kitchen.

“Here, let me help.”

As the married couple disappeared into the other room the place suddenly seemed much more quiet, Naka and Ellire left alone to stare at each other awkwardly. Finally Naka decided to break the silence.

“Stop giving me that look, Elle.”

Ellire cocked her head to the side. “What look? I’m not giving you a look.”

“Yes, you are. You’re giving me that look that clearly says ‘well, I didn’t do anything wrong back there’ when, yes, obviously you did!” Naka threw her napkin down over the plate. “Seriously, Elle? Did you really have to go and tell Jairin that I wasn’t a bender? I mean, what good did it prove?”

“I don’t know!” Ellire admitted, shrugging. “I just sort of panicked, okay? And what would’ve happened if you had agreed to teach her?”

“Then she would’ve figured out I was actually an airbender and it would change nothing!”

“Are you stupid? Of course it would!” Ellire paused, unsure of how she was to get through to Naka’s thick head. “You already know that we can’t teach her anyway. Building up expectations like that and then betraying her later would’ve been even crueler... I just said what I thought would make it easiest.”

Naka continued to shoot daggers at Ellire, unconvinced. “You know, for someone who claims to hate Blaise as much as you do, you sure do act a lot like her!”

There was a loud crashing sound as Ellire jumped up, shoving the chair out from behind her. “Say that again!” she challenged, her eyes seeming to glow a faint red. “I don’t know about you, Naka, but all I’ve done since we got rid of her is try to look out for you. For both of us!”

Naka shook her head slowly, immediately regretting what she’d said. “I know. I know, you’re right. The last thing we need to be doing right now is fighting.”

Ellire sighed, allowing herself to calm down some as her eyes faded back to their normal color. She looked down towards the floor, feeling somewhat ashamed at herself for having snapped like that twice in one day. “No... I’m sorry. It was wrong of me to say something like that in the first place, anyhow. Next time I’ll let you answer for yourself.”

“Wouldn’t matter,” Naka said. “You were just doing what you thought was best. It’s not like we’d be around to teach her, even if we wanted to.” She lifted her head to Ellire, who was still standing, a serious look on both of their faces. “You’re absolutely right. The second we stop getting along we have nothing, so... no more fighting?”

Ellire smiled. “No more fighting. I promise.”

“Me too!” Naka said, getting up and hugging onto Ellire, who attempted to place her hand over Naka’s head affectionately but quickly realized that it was more trouble than it was worth, being the shorter of the two, and had to settle with just hugging back this time instead.

“You should get some sleep,” Ellire whispered. “It’s been a long day.”

“But what about you? Aren’t you tired?”

“Don’t worry; I’ll probably pass out in the wagon on their drive back out, if that’s okay with you.” Naka tried to stifle a yawn, grateful for her friend’s offer. “Shall I wake you up at midnight, then?”

“Midnight it is,” Naka confirmed, stepping out of their embrace.

-x-

Somewhere in the Fire Nation, Chief of Police Kumi stood leaning against the wooden railing to a small balcony outside of the police station. In front of her stretched a black ocean, the three quarters of the moon left visible reflecting eerily against its smooth surface.

The firebending official was clad in primarily red and black armor, her dark brown hair tied up tightly into a bun, save two long strands that stuck out of the front and faded into a lighter red color. She adjusted the tiny spectacles on her face, frowning.

“Blaise... precisely how long did you intend on standing there before either of us said anything?” Kumi asked sarcastically, hardly bothering to turn her head around.

Sure enough, another figure stood just outside the doorway to the moonlit balcony, her hands fidgeting around awkwardly behind her back. She looked a bit younger than Kumi, but not by much and wore a short pink tank top over orange pants that were several sizes too large for her, bagging out at the sides. Several small red ribbons were tied around her wrists and being used as a belt and like Kumi, she also wore a pair of glasses with light brown hair that went some ways down past her shoulders.

“Um...” Blaise looked over her shoulder nervously. As much as she tried to keep herself from becoming intimidated in the older firebender’s presence, it certainly wasn’t easy. Most of the Fire Nation had developed a habit of referring to the Chief of Police as ‘Old Ironfire’ for that very reason, although they wouldn’t dare to say so to Kumi’s face.

Still not bothering to turn around, Kumi rolled her eyes, already bored with waiting for Blaise’s excuse. “What do you want?” she sighed.

Blaise stood up straight again. “Oh! Well, uh, I couldn’t help but notice that you’ve been acting a little... well, stressed, I suppose, as of late. So there’s that. And I also was kind of sort of wondering if you happened to have received any news pertaining to the current location of a certain two con artists... if that’s okay with you?”

Finally turning to face Blaise, Kumi lifted an eyebrow. “Would these two con artists by any chance have any sort of relation to the girls that you promised to lead me and my forces to in exchange for your freedom?”

Shifting her head back and forth in thought Blaise finally answered, “I think that would be a fair assumption.”

Suddenly Kumi leapt forward, pinning Blaise against the wall angrily with her arm. “Do you think this is funny?” she hissed. “It’s been nearly an entire month since we brought you in, and we’re not a single step closer to finding your ex-partners in crime! Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t have you placed behind bars this very moment!”

Smiling weakly, Blaise took a hold on Kumi’s arm and brought it down slowly, their eyes still fixed on each other distrustfully. “Now, that’s not very fair, Chief. After all, I did point you in the right direction... sort of. That is to say, at least I stopped you from looking in exactly the WRONG direction. If you know what I mean.”

Kumi’s expression didn’t change. “I never know what you mean... idiot. Why can’t you just stop being a smartass and admit that you have no idea where they are or where they’re going?”

“Because, see, that would be BENDing the truth just a tad, wouldn’t it?” Blaise grinned up at Kumi, somewhat surprised to see her lack of a reaction yet again. “Get it? Bending? Like, because we’re benders?”

Beat.

She proceeded to explain the bad pun: “Okay, so you know what ‘bending the truth’ means. As in, you’d be sli--”

“Would you just shut up!”

Blaise fell silent again, cupping her hand over her mouth as Kumi turned away, pacing in the opposite direction. “God! You and your ridiculous sense of humor all the time! Life isn’t some big joke.”

“Look, I didn’t mean to imply tha--”

Kumi spun around in place, shooting an icy glare in Blaise’s direction. Blaise mimed a lock and key motion across her mouth, stuffed the invisible ‘key’ into her shirt and then gave the Chief of Police a thumbs up, as if cueing her to continue. Kumi sighed again and picked up where she had left off.

“I’m a woman of action, Blaise. I don’t like to wait for things and honestly, that’s the only thing you’ve seemed to accomplish in the time that you’ve been with us: make me wait. So I think I’m going to propose a new deal for you, and it’d be in your best interests to accept...”

Blaise gulped. She wasn’t sure where this was going, but if her and Kumi’s goals were similar she hoped it wouldn’t be anything too bad. After all, how often did one have to opportunity to get their revenge while still working under the law?

“You have four weeks,” Kumi decided.

Blaise reached into her shirt once again and proceeded to act out unlocking her mouth to respond. “I can do it in two.”

“All right, then. Two weeks.”

Kumi squinted at Blaise, somewhat confused as to why she would bother arguing a worse deal for herself, but ultimately decided against questioning it for fear of instead receiving another bad pun as an explanation.

“Two weeks,” Kumi repeated, “and if I don’t catch a glimpse of those two in that amount of time then I am taking back my offer and will have my men arrest you in their place. Are we clear?”

“I thought you said that my charges no longer appl--”

“I said are we CLEAR?”

Blaise began nodding quickly. “Uh-huh! I mean, yes Chief!” She quickly saluted the Chief of Police, hoping that was how she was expected to respond and not just embarrassing herself further.

“Good,” Kumi responded, still unconvinced. “I intend to have wanted posters spread as far the Earth Kingdom in the next couple of days. Hopefully that’ll get someone to tip us off and you can start from there.”

“And then I can take some of the police and go hunt them down myself?”

Kumi practically laughed out loud, which is certainly saying something for her. “No. I want to keep a close eye on you during this wild armadillogoose chase.”

-x-

“Psst! Ellire!”

The firebender groaned softly and began to mumble something in her sleep before shifting onto her other side. Naka sat cross-legged on the floor beside her friend’s bed, Ellire’s back now facing her. She frowned and stood up, jabbing Ellire against her side.

“Elle!” she whispered, continuing to prod and poke her. “Dammit, Ellire, you promised you’d be the one waking me up!”

Naka grabbed a pillow from next to the still-sleeping girl and slammed it against her face. For a moment there she thought it had worked, too, as Ellire stretched her arms out to the sides with a loud yawn, for whatever reason lifting her leg at the same time. However, instead of opening her eyes and sitting up Ellire then proceeded to reach out and pull the pillow out of Naka’s grasp, curling up into a tight ball around it.

Naka pulled all of the blankets off of Ellire at once. Still no desired response.

Now, this really began to frustrate Naka, who it turns out wasn’t used to playing the responsible one and quite frankly had decided that she wasn’t a fan of it, either. A mischievous smile spreading across the airbender’s face. Slowly she rolled her sleeves up over her elbows and held her arms out in front of her.

A sudden gust of wind blew Ellire into the air, pillow and all, and then relocated the firebender directly over the hard floor. There she hovered for a brief moment before being unceremoniously dropped.

There was a loud thunk followed by a stream of unpleasant muttering. Naka ducked down and pressed herself against the ground, wary of Ellire’s next course of action against her.

Meanwhile, Ellire had just finished realizing what had happened and blinked in surprise, rubbing the back of her head with one hand. She then leapt halfway onto the bed, preparing to have a stern word with Naka when she realized that she couldn’t even see the other girl at all. Pulling her way across the rest of the bed sideways Ellire popped her head over its edge, now spotting the culprit.

“You said midnight?” Naka said, smiling as innocently as she could.

“Yeah, well.” Ellire slit her eyes towards Naka, remembering to keep her voice low. “At the last minute I decided I needed my beauty sleep.”

Naka raised an eyebrow mockingly. “Beauty sleep, eh? If that’s what you’re calling it then I’d suggest about 24 hours to improve your case.”

“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that last snide remark. Now, could you do me a favor and toss me our bags? We don’t have a lot of time, especially if you accidentally woke somebody up with your little stunt back there.”

Naka nodded. She picked up two large sacks from the ground and tossed one in Ellire’s direction, using a small gust of wind to blow it directly into her partner’s hand.

“There’s nothing valuable in here,” Naka said. “I suggest we head downstairs first. Unless, of course, you particularly fancy that lamp over there.”

Ellire followed Naka’s gaze to see an ornate lamp that was a deep green shade with golden trim. “You know what,” she replied, “I think I do. I’m keepin’ it!” And with that she lifted the glass thing and slid it off of its nightstand and into her brown sack.

Holding her hand over her mouth, Naka tried not to laugh. “Suit yourself. I’m not gonna lie, I hope the silverware’s worth more.”

“I will admit those were some fancy-shmancy forks Mr. and Mrs. Cole had back there!”

Giggling as softly as they could manage so as to not wake up their sleeping hosts, the two crooks slipped downstairs and into the kitchen. There they began filling their bags with all sorts of things, some quite valuable and others really just more shiny than anything else.

It was just as Naka was trying to stuff a poorly folded tablecloth into an already too-full sack when they became aware of a third person watching them from halfway down the stairwell.

“I-I don’t understand...” Jairin managed weakly, feeling a thick lump in her throat. Her eyes were wide with fear and hurt. “Ever since you got here, my family’s done nothing but been kind to you. We let you eat from our table... sleep in our beds...” Eyes now beginning to water, it took all that Jairin had in her to keep from crying.

A wave of guilt slowly crept across the room. When it had spread all the way to Ellire she looked into her bag of stolen goods, trying hard to push away any regretting emotions in their attempt to surface. She sighed, still unable to meet the earthbender’s eyes. “Well. This just got awkward rather quickly.”

Not knowing what else to do, Naka set down her own bag and rushed forward to hug Jairin. And she allowed her to do so, too. At least for a good minute or so, after which point Ellire and Naka were almost horrified to see how quickly her disposition could change right before their very eyes.

“I’ll kill you!” Jairin yelled loudly, throwing her hands forward and forcing Naka away from her. This was immediately followed by the crashing sound of a large slab of stone that had broken its way through the wooden floorboards and had begun lunging towards Naka, smacking her square across the chest and then proceeding to shove her quickly towards the other end of the room.

Just before colliding into the opposite wall, Naka summoned up a quick gust of wind and flung herself out of the danger zone, landing safely back on her own two feet. She clutched her hand over her stomach, gritting her teeth.

Ellire was too busy staring at Jairin in surprise to pay much attention to how Naka was currently faring. She trusted that her friend knew how to defend herself against a sudden attack. But even so, that little earthbending display hardly looked like an amature seeking out a new teacher.

Her current train of thought was distracted abruptly, however, when Jairin continued to fling out her arm, which now pulled out a series of bullet-shaped rocks from the stone protruding out of the dining room floor. Upon opening up her clenched fist, she unleashed the volley in the firebender’s direction.

Rock after rock whizzing through the air and over her head like missiles, Ellire dropped to the ground, dodging behind a low counter that separated the kitchen from the dining room. At the same time Ellire’s bag had slipped from her grasp, falling a short distance to the tile kitchen floor along with the sound of breaking glass.

“That better not’ve been my lamp,” Ellire hissed under her breath. “I was actually quite fond of it!”

Cautious of another round, she rolled forward into a summersault. Unfortunately for her, she had somewhat miscalculated the distance between herself and the oven directly across from her and ended up smacking her back against its door.

Wincing in pain, Ellire pulled herself up again, keeping one hand against the counter for support. Nearby she saw Naka shifting back and forth smoothly in order to dodge the newest wave of stone projectiles.

“I could use a tad bit of help, actually!” Naka called back at her sarcastically. “Thanks for offering!” The majority of her attention still focused on keeping unscathed, she swung her arm around, sending a gust of wind directly at Jairin, who caught the beginning of the blast before stretching a sheet of hardened earth in front of her as a shield.

From the other side, Ellire stood up straight and lit up both of her hands with crackling flames. She flung the first fireball at Jairin, which missed entirely, flying past the side of her head. Ellire made it disappear nearly as soon as it had come into existence before the glowing embers had a chance to touch the staircase, kind enough to want to avoid torching the house.

The irony in this was that despite Ellire’s attempts to keep the unusual battlefield relatively in order, the girl who lived there seemed to show no interest when it came to monitoring the destructiveness of her bending.

The second fireball that Ellire threw forward scathed across its target’s left shoulder before sliding behind Jairin and disappearing like the previous one. She stumbled backwards while grabbing at the wound, but the second her fingertips touched its hot surface she pulled away with a gasp. It was at this point that Jairin completely lost her footing, reaching out towards the nearby wall as she fell. It didn’t seem to do much, considering how she immediately slipped flat onto her back as a look of pain rippled across her face.

Ellire couldn’t help but wonder just how bad the burn she’d left on the earthbender was. Either way, Jairin didn’t look like she’d be getting up anytime soon. Throwing her sack back over her shoulder, Ellire made a run for the door. She noticed her back was still sore from moments ago and hoped that it would stop hurting soon, since there wasn’t much that she could do about it for the time being.

“Hey, Naka!” she called from the doorway. “You coming or what?”

The barricade of dirt and stone had crumbled in on itself when Jairin tripped, and Naka stepped forward onto the collapsed rubble to get a better look at her. The girl was struggling to stand herself back up again and she felt half torn between offering out her hand to help her or holding her down with another blast of wind.

“Naka!” Ellire called again, getting impatient now.

Suddenly Mr. and Mrs. Cole came running downstairs. They stopped a little ways above their daughter and stared in horror at the mess, quickly putting two and two together. Panicking, Naka spun around and ran back to Ellire’s side, hardly slowing her pace as she picked up her sack again.

As the two girls disappeared into the night, the family cupped their hands over their mouths and called after them angrily.

“Stop! Thieves!”

-x-

Sometime later Naka and Ellire had stopped deep into the woods for the night. Or morning, as it just well may be. Their large caravan sat parked in the dark a little ways away from a fire pit that had been dug out of the ground and was surrounded by tall, looming trees. Across the thick fabric its side read:

A Touch of Magic  
starring Ellire, Blaise and Naka

However, Blaise’s name had been blackened out, likely Ellire’s doing. A burnt, charcoal-colored surface remained where the word was once painted brightly, although still more or less readable.

Ellire dumped a large pile of broken sticks into the pit and easily lit them ablaze. Suddenly the campsite seemed so much more homely, the golden-colored flames now licking at the area around them and casting long shadows from the trees that spread out around the campsite’s perimeter.

“Hey, Naka,” she said, now pulling out a pair of heavy-duty sleeping bags from inside the wagon, still stuffed to the brim with the folded up performance stage and everything else that the duo may or may not have actually owned. “You coming? It’s late, and I want to give us enough time to make it to next town before dark if we’re going to sleep well into a good chunk of the day already.”

“Yeah. I’ll be there in a minute.”

Naka was standing in front of the caravan, where their giant jackalope was crouched down comfortably, an orange glow reflecting off of its gray fur. Naka stroked its long, black-tipped velvet ear just below a pair of antlers.

“Good boy, Dandan!” she cooed. “I’ll find you some nuts in the morning, I promise. I know you love those.” Dandan made an odd clicking noise in the back of his throat as she patted its head and rejoined Ellire, who was squeezing into her sleeping bag beside the roaring campfire.

“Hey... Elle?” Naka asked softly as she crawled into her own makeshift bed. The dirt-covered ground was much harder and less pleasant than what she’d been sleeping on at the Cole’s place, but she didn’t say anything about it.

“Hm?”

Naka pulled the top of the sleeping bag up to her chin and continued. “Do you think it’s worth it? This whole dine and dash business, I mean.”

Ellire lifted her head a bit more to try to see Naka before bringing her line of vision back to the dancing embers only a foot or so away. Close proximity to the heat didn’t bother her all that much.

“Why would you ask that?”

“Well...” Naka bit her lip, not entirely sure of where she was going with this train of thought. “It’s just, everything Jairin was saying... It just got me thinking, that’s all. I mean, it’s true. All of it.”

“You’re not going to keep going on about that, are you?” Ellire complained, her back still facing Naka. She found it hurt less to sleep on her side after the whole oven collision incident.

“I just...” The airbender’s voice trailed off as she stared into the night sky directly above her. She could only make out several stars shining in the distance. Perhaps one of them was actually a planet, explaining why it seemed to glow brighter than the others. The vast majority of the moon was blocked out by a tall pine tree to the side of her. Naka sighed.

“I don’t know. I feel terrible every time. I understand why we do it. It’s all we can to get by, just the two of us, but... They never asked for it. And I can’t even imagine what it must be like in their situation.”

Ellire shut her eyes slowly with the intention of getting back to sleep very soon. “Don’t tell me you’re getting soft, now. I don’t particularly enjoy it, either, but you said so yourself: it’s just something that we have to do.” She paused. “I just want to help you... for us.”

“Ellire... are we bad people?”

“Bad is an opinion,” the firebender whispered back. “After all, I’m sure that the Coles wouldn’t consider us the most exceptional house guests.”

“But do YOU think we’re bad?”

“...No. No, of course not.”

Naka shut her eyes as well, forcing an unseen smile. “G’night.”

“Night.”

-x-

The following morning the majority of the vast Fire Nation police forces had gathered outside of the station in an orderly block. There was an unusual amount of mist about and the sky was a matching dull gray. The air was thick, foggy and cold, but the police (many of them being firebenders themselves) hardly seemed to notice the low temperature. Among the officials, all dressed in identical black and red uniform and standing up straight with their arms at their sides, Blaise stuck out like a sore thumb standing at the end of the first row.

However, Blaise hardly seemed to notice much less mind the way her light pink and orange attire clashed against the surrounding color spectrum. Perched upon her was miniature dragon, about the size of a hamster and a darker shade of lime green. She called her companion Aeron and he somehow possessed to ability to communicate with Blaise alone. Through her mind.

Blaise’s attention was suddenly pulled in as Kumi exited the station, her black metal boots making a crunching noise against the field of small stones below her as she trudged towards a stage positioned in front of the mass of Fire Nation officials.

A hush lingered over the crowd as Chief of Police Kumi trudged up a small flight of stairs and positioned herself at the center of the stage and before a podium. There was nothing else at the podium to raise her voice or state who she was, but standing behind it made her feel important. What it did offer, though, was a small stepping stool hidden away from the public’s eye in order to lift Kumi from the platform some inches more. She wasn’t the tallest of people, therefore the concept of standing on something to boost her height often appealed to the high-ranking bender.

“Ladies and gentlemen!” Kumi addressed the forces, her voice ringing out loud and clear. “Members of the Fire Nation Police Department and protectors of justice! As you all are well aware, it is very early on a Saturday morning. Perhaps you are wondering why I’ve called you here at such an inconvenient time. I don’t suppose any of you have heard of an insignificant traveling circus called A Touch of Magic?” She scanned the crowd like a hawk searching out its prey as the police lifted their chins to her, listening intently. “No?”

Kumi cleared her throat before continuing. “Well then, aren’t you in for a treat. In all my years in this position, not once have I come across a duo so deserving of punishment as these two girls. As the traitor from our own homeland, Ellire, and her accomplice Naka!”

Along with Kumi’s declaration a large banner was unrolled from behind her depicting a large inked drawing of the two travellers from their chests up. In the picture Naka was sticking out her tongue playful and had her arm around Ellire, who was holding up a peace sign with one hand and smiling. Above the image was the word ‘wanted,’ bolded and written entirely with capital letters, and beneath it was the description:

Ellire of the Fire Nation  
Naka of the Western Air Temple  
Wanted for Thievery, Among Other Things  
Reward: 350,000 Gold Pieces Each

Aeron snorted out a thin layer of smoke out of his nostrils from atop Blaise's shoulder. He turned his attention to her, his face still expressionless.

Looks like Old Ironfire’s serious about these two. That’s a whopping 700,000 gold pieces altogether!

Blaise nodded slowly in response to the dragon’s statement, still keeping faced forward. “Yup,” she said nonchalantly. “That does seem like a lot for Ellire and Naka. At least, more than even I would want to pay to have them captured!”

Makes you wonder what her personal vendetta is...

“I don’t know.” Blaise merely shrugged. “Makes my whole revenge scheme seem like child's play, whatever it is.”

The soldier standing next to Blaise looked over, an uneasy scowl upon his face. This didn’t come as a surprise to the firebender, considering the fact that others couldn’t hear Aeron’s voice for unknown reasons while with Blaise’s they, well, could.

In a poor attempt to avoid the awkwardness of explaining this to the soldier whom she never expected to see again after this meeting, she simply decided to put her finger over her own mouth, shush HIM, and then turn attention back towards Kumi and point, as if saying that that’s where he ought to be focusing and not at her.

“You’ve gotta stop doing that,” she still whispered to Aeron. “The last thing I need is another reason for people to think I’m nuts!”

Aeron snorted again, a dark green eye focused on her.

As if you didn’t do a good enough job of that yourself... Oh well. Don’t expect me to stop speaking my mind for your sake, but if you choose to ignore me there’s not much I can do about it. I don’t bite... much.

Blaise rolled her eyes. “Have I mentioned how much you suck sometimes?”

At this point the nearby policeman, being utterly convinced that Blaise was having a full-fledged conversation with herself, had taken as many steps as he could away from her without touching whomever it was positioned on his other side.

Kumi then continued, hardly allowing Blaise any time to further embarrass herself.

“Do not let their outward appearances dissuade you,” she said, holding onto the podium and leaning forward. “These benders are far from innocent! Perhaps they don’t appear as bad as some of our previous targets, but I assure you, Ellire and Naka are nothing more than a nuisance to our society and therefore must be captured at all costs! I will not rest until someone has put a stop to their petty crimes once and for all, and that someone will be me!”

“Or me!” Blaise shouted out, shooting her fist into the air.

Kumi jolted her head in Blaise’s direction, the interruption catching her off guard. “Um... no, it’s going to be me. But I suppose you can help. A bit. And what are you even doing here anyway, Blaise?!”

Blaise lowered her hand slowly, suddenly worried that that may not’ve been the most clever move in the history of everything. “Well...” she began, feeling compelled to speak up so that Kumi could hear her. “You did ask me to attend, Chief.”

“I know! I know I did, but...” Kumi rested her arm against the podium, using it to hold up her head. “God. Sometimes I hate your stinking guts just so much.”

Isn’t she something special. And quite a way with words, too...

“Shut up, Aeron. No one asked you.”

“What was that? Did you just tell me to shut up?!”

“No!” Blaise called back, cupping her hands over her mouth. “I was talking to Aeron! My dragon!”

“Well then!” Kumi shouted, matching Blaise’s volume. “Tell it to shut up!”

“That’s what I just did!”

“Good!”

Oh, for the love of...

“Why are we yelling!”

“I don’t know! Maybe if you’d keep your dumb comments to yourself I could continue at a normal volume!”

“Sounds good to me!”

The two of them stopped their little shouting match abruptly. The mass of police had begun to shoot each other worried glances, but Kumi and Blaise hardly seemed to notice. Chief Kumi cleared her throat once again.

“Now... where was I? Ah, yes: Ellire and Naka. Anyway!” She pointed to the sign behind her yet again. “My first plan was to have you broken up into smaller forces and then distributed throughout the many civilizations in the Earth Kingdom, where the tricksters are assumed to still be passing through. There you will be asked to put up these posters immediately, which will hopefully encourage someone who’s already encountered them to tip us off. Otherwise I expect you to watch over the area for any signs of Naka and Ellire and, if spotted, to stay hot on their trail until you are able to bring them back to me. Is that understood?”

“Yes, Chief,” several of the soldiers said out loud.

“I said, is that understood?” Kumi repeated herself, slightly louder this time.

“Yes Chief!” they all shouted back in unison.

Satisfied by this respond, Kumi stormed off of the platform once again where she stopping in front of another high-ranking officer, who stood at the foot of the stairs. “How soon can we sail out from the Fire Nation?”

“With the tide,” the man answered confidently.

Kumi nodded. “Good. I trust you can get the men ready in that amount of time? I would like to have a word with the captains first.”

 

The other official nodded, turning to leave. Kumi searched for Blaise in the now dispersing crowd, who still wasn’t particularly difficult to pick out among the other identical uniforms. “Blaise!” she called, waving her over.

Blaise looked up, surprised, and pointed at herself for confirmation before walking over to the Chief of Police. “Yes... My Lady?”

“I want to...” Kumi’s voice trailed off distractedly. “Blaise. Did you just call me your ‘lady’?”

“Nope. Not at all.”

“But I swear I just heard...”

“Innocent until proven guilty.”

Kumi squinted in Blaise’s direction for a while before dropping the subject. “Never mind. I said before that I wanted to keep an eye on you, therefore I trust you’ll stay nearby from this point on.”

“I thought you said you hated me?”

“It’s going to be a long trip, I can tell you that much.”

“So we’re speaking with the ship captains before we depart?” Blaise confirmed, desperately trying to keep this conversation as minimally awkward as possible. After all, from the sound of it they would be stuck with each other for quite some time.

“Yes. Do me a favor and try to keep up and please, for my own sanity... do try to avoid unnecessary puns.” With that Kumi began to head in the opposite direction, hardly waiting for Blaise to catch up as she followed the Chief of Police from a little ways away.

Aeron flicked his scale-covered tail in amusement. Do you really intend to play by Kumi’s rules this entire time? From the looks of it you two can’t stand each other, not to mention the Blaise I know doesn’t take orders from anyone...

Blaise grinned mischievously, keeping both eyes straight in front of her. “And doesn’t the Blaise you know also always have a backup plan?”

Oh?

“‘Oh’ indeed. I’ll stick with Kumi, play by her own rules... for now. Once I’ve gotten as close to my old friends as I can with their help I intend to seek out revenge on my own.” Aeron made a strange hissing sound, his tongue protruding from his mouth with amusement.

How intriguing. For both of our sakes, I hope you don’t mess up again...

“Don’t worry, I won’t. Not this time.”

-x-

“You don’t look much like an assassin.”

“That’s the thing about assassins. When you are one you don’t go around telling people.”

“But you told me that you were an assassin.”

“How do you know I wasn’t tricking you? Maybe I told you that I was an assassin so you’d think, ‘now there’s no way that she can be an assassin’ when I really was?”

Jairin finally threw her arms into the air in defeat. “But that doesn’t even make any sense!”

“Look, kid, I’ve been in this business longer than you’ve been alive!” the other girl shot back defensively. Jairin merely shrugged in response.

“I seriously doubt it.”

The two of them were conversing in the middle of a pub a little ways from Jairin’s house. The younger earthbender had never visited it before, her parents having always warned her about encountering the wrong sort of people in them. As if to prove them right she’d managed to run into a self-proclaimed assassin on her first try, if that’s even what the waterbender really was.

Jairin stood in front of the bar area. A foot or so away the older girl was leaning back on one of the bar stools, her legs kicked on top of the counter as if she’d not a care in the world. Dressed in Water Tribe getup from head to toe, she had ridiculously long brown hair held into a ponytail by a dark and light blue striped bracelet. Two sky blue beads pinned up bits of hair a little ways above her ears.

The waterbender was wearing a sleeveless darker blue shirt with long, pale brown sleeves put on each arm separately so that there was a gap where her shoulders were. She wore a pair of pale blue tights underneath a skirt that tied around and a pair of brown boots, their edges decorated with a water-like, swirling design.

“So can you help me or not?” Jairin asked again. She held out a bunnypig bank and placed it down on top of the bar’s tabletop.

It took all of the other girl’s will to keep from laughing out loud. “How much you got in there, kid? A couple copper pieces?”

“Nearly 500 silver,” Jairin corrected. “Mostly from chores around the house over the years, but I’ve got more back at home if it isn’t enough. And stop calling me ‘kid’; the name’s Jairin, got it?”

The waterbender made a face. Even a thousand gold pieces hardly seemed worth her time, but to be perfectly honest she wasn’t having any better luck with other clients as it was. It had been months upon months since anyone had hired her for her services and sitting around doing nothing had left her incredibly bored.

“You can call me Rei,” she replied, eyeing the bunnypig bank. “And I suppose I’ll take the job. You can tell me the details later, but from what I’ve heard so far it doesn’t sound like it’ll be too difficult.”

“Does tomorrow morning work? Same place?”

“Tomorrow’s fine. Bring whatever money you have.”

Jairin nodded her thanks at Rei before turning to leave. Perhaps she wasn’t doing the most noble of deeds (or legal, for that matter), and behind her parents’ backs at that, but the younger earthbender didn’t care. It would all be worth it later; they’d have to understand. If all went as planned she’d have her stuff back in no time at all and the culprits would be getting the punishment they deserved.


	2. Pursuit

Jairin watched from just outside of her house as the waterbending assassin set off on her quest. For a brief moment she wondered how Rei even intended to catch up to Naka and Ellire, what with her travelling on foot, when a strange idea struck her.

“Wait!” Jairin called out, running over to where Rei was. Rei stopped where she stood and didn’t turn to face Jairin until she was directly beside her.

“What now?” the waterbender grumbled.

Jairin gulped, suddenly afraid of Rei’s answer to her newest request. “So... I was wondering if I could accompany you. Just until you finish the job.”

Rei rubbed her forehead. “What do you mean, accompany me?”

“Well,” Jairin began to explain herself, “I know I didn’t mention this when we met before, but for some time now I’ve been meaning to find myself a bending teacher. And I know that we bend two different elements, but I thought that perhaps I could still learn a thing or two abou--”

The oldest member of the party practically burst out laughing, cutting Jairin off mid-sentence. Rei placed both of her hands on the girl’s shoulders and looked her in the eye, attempting to come off as mature and adult-like as she could manage. “Look, kid - I’m sorry, Jairin: I’m no teacher, nor am I a babysitter. I work alone or I don’t work at all.”

But Jairin refused to let Rei’s stern resolve dissuade her.

“You wouldn’t have to do anything you don’t want to,” Jairin insisted. “In fact, you won’t even notice I’m there! I can just follow a little ways away and try to pick up some things by watching your bending. I can bring my own food and spending money and--”

“I said no!” Rei snapped, interrupting the earthbender yet again. “I work alone and that’s final. Now, perhaps if you were able to offer me something worth the extra effort I might start to seriously consider the offer, but in the meantime…”

“I can pay you double what I’ve already given you.”

See, there are several key points that one must know to begin to fully understand a character such as Rei. The first of these would have to be that the waterbending assassin wasn’t even an assassin in the first place, nor had she ever been or planned to before a person of that particular trade. What she was, instead, was a fraud and as such had developed a nasty habit of weaving together lie after lie in the past couple of weeks.

If you were to ask Rei to pinpoint the source of her new identity she would likely tell you that it had all begun after she was banished from the Northern Water Tribe for collapsing a dam that ended in the destruction of an entire village, through absolutely no fault of her own, of course.

Okay, so that last part was a bit of a lie. As agreed upon by the majority of her former tribe, this incident in question was very much her fault, regardless of whatever good intent she had behind her actions. But more on that later.

Now the waterbender-in-exile, who was no more of an assassin than Jairin herself was faced with a difficult decision: to accept the extra money and let Jairin tag along in hopes of losing her somewhere, or she could refuse the idea and continue with the original plan. This mostly involved promising something that Rei had no intention of seeing through and then making off with the reward as if she really had deserved it in the first place.

To be perfectly fair, the biggest difference between the scams of Rei and those in A Touch of Magic was their methods of stealing. As opposed to taking things behind one’s back, Rei instead waited to be offered the money and then stole it.

Rei closed her eyes and thought for a moment, prepared to admit defeat. Having Jairin tag along would only bring more trouble on herself, but after having spent the last month or so fleeing from the Northern Water Tribe on the back of her beloved spotted manatee she needed the extra coins. She’d only brought with her the clothing she wore upon her back, after all, and hadn’t been having the best luck in making a living in the foreign Earth Kingdom.

“All right, fine! You win.”

Jairin didn’t appear to have heard her and kept on begging: “And I know that this is probably the least of your concerns, but just in case you’re hesitating because of what my parents will think I promise I can write them a letter before I leave! That way they can know exactly where I am, just in case they decide to bring me back and ground me for the rest of my--”

“I said alright!” Rei repeated, louder this time. Jairin practically jumped in surprise.

“What? Y-You mean it? I really can come?”

“Yes,” Rei crossed her arms. “I suppose you can just pay me upfront and I’ll see what I can do.” Jairin’s eyes lit up with excitement.

“Oh, thank you! You won’t regret this!” And with that Jairin bolted back into her house, a darker green skirt flapping behind her as she ran. But as Rei watched the earthbender disappear into the doorway she began to immediately regret her change of heart (more or less) and start contemplating just what to do from that point on.

On the one hand, Rei could always have used the extra cash. The only issue that this brought up was just how and when she planned on ditching Jairin after they set out together. Rei shook her head, pushing the thought away. She would cross that bridge when she got to it.

Even sooner than she had expected Jairin came sprinting back to where Jairin stood. Panting, she held out a rather impressive sack filled with coins. Rei took it.

“I was having trouble finding exactly 1,000 more silver pieces,” Jairin explained, “so instead I put in about 500 and tried to make up the rest with about 80 gold. But I’m not so good at conversions, so then I threw in whatever copper pieces I could find around the house... I hope that’s enough?”

If Rei had any prior intention to work for the money then no, it most certainly wasn’t worth her trouble. But considering that she wouldn’t be earning any of it Rei felt much better about taking the weak offering.

Without bothering to count the payment for herself, Rei took the pouch and dropped it into the leather bag that she kept swung over her shoulder. She took several steps forward, heading down the dirt pathway before her. “Just try to keep up, ‘kay? I leave my dead on the trail.”

Jairin’s eyes widened at this. Just to be on the safe side she hurried forward, trying to keep in step with Rei and her quicker walking pace. Rei giggled softly to herself.

“That was supposed to be a joke.”

Jairin forced a smile, starting to relax yet again. Rei continued talking, mostly for her own amusement. “Welcome to the Northern Water Tribe nature hike, kid - I mean Jairin!” She looked over her shoulder at the girl and showed off a crooked smile. “I hope you don’t mind sleeping underwater.”

Tensing up once more, Jairin almost began to doubt her own decision when Rei burst out laughing even louder than before.

“I’m sorry! Sorry, that was just too good!” Rei managed between giggle fits. “That was also a joke, if you missed it... God, this is going to be more fun than I thought.”

The younger earthbender raised an eyebrow for a moment before sighing. She had been trying to figure a person such as Rei out for herself, but it was no use. Rei was just too unpredictable of a person.

They certainly were going to make for a rather amusing team.

-x-

“Six copper pieces.”

“C’mon, six?!” Ellire shot back stubbornly. “You’ve got to be kidding me! That has to be worth at least twenty or thirty, if we’re talking in copper!”

The shopkeeper remained as stern as ever, a serious look upon his face. “Perhaps if it were in mint condition when you brought it to me. But this!” He pointed an accusing finger at the counter that stood between the two of them. On it sat the ornate lamp that had once belonged in the guest room of the Cole’s house. A large crack now split the glass thing cleanly down the middle and into two parts. “This is junk!”

“Oh, it’s not that bad!” the firebender insisted, leaning forward and turning it to the side. “If you hide this part it’s good as new!” The half of the lamp that was still left standing toppled over as the faint sound of shattering glass signified the light bulb smashing against the counter. Ellire smiled guiltily at the less-than-pleased shopkeeper. “How does twelve copper pieces sound?”

“Four.”

“Oh, come ON!”

Suddenly a friendly hand was upon Ellire’s shoulder. She shook it off, turning to see Naka standing beside her with a small stack of papers in her other hand. “Oh, Elle. I certainly hope you aren’t giving another thrift shop owner a hard time.”

“She was.”

“Not! And stay out of this, stranger!”

Naka sighed and looked over at the ruined lamp. “What seems to be the trouble this time?” she was hesitant to ask.

“Well! Funny you should ask,” Ellire accused, shooting a fiery glare in the man’s direction. He raised his eyebrows at her and crossed his arms.

“This’ll be good,” the shopkeeper muttered under his breath.

Ellire pretended not to hear the snide remark. “THIS fellow tried to buy our beloved lamp off of me for six copper pieces. Six! Can you even believe such a ridiculous offer?”

Leaning forward and pressing the palms of her hands against her knees, Naka inspected the lamp in question. “Six pieces? Who in their right minds would pay so much for this piece of junk?”

“Exactl--” Ellire stopped herself, realizing that what the airbender had said was in actuality an insult. “Hey!” she gasped. “I really did like that lamp in its prime!”

“Ellire.”

The firebender rolled her eyes and echoed Naka’s sarcastic tone.

“Naka.”

“Ellire…”

“Naka…”

Naka sighed, rubbing her eye with the backside of her hand. “Sometimes I wonder which of us is really the adult here.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Ignoring her, Naka passed the papers that she was carrying into Ellire’s possession, who began flipping through them slowly. “I was able to set up a time and location for the show. So far A Touch of Magic’s on for tonight and tomorrow morning, but I think I can get at least one more performance in if the farmer’s market finishes on time. But do you think you’d mind if I took over moving this stuff into the thrift shop while sending you out to search for a proper place to spend the night?” Naka offered.

“Yes. Please.”

Ellire pointed at the shopkeeper, at her own eyes, and then back at him again. “Nobody asked you, okay?”

“Elle, please be nice…”

With a shrug, Ellire stretched her arms out to her sides. “All right, fine! You don’t want me here!”

“Elle…”

“No, seriously! I get it. It’s cool.” She began to head towards the doorway as Naka watched, torn between being ashamed of her friend and amused at her immaturity. Ellire continued, “Guess I’ll start by looking for an inn or something around here. If we’re really lucky I’ll bump into some willing host with a spare guest room, like last time…” And with that she stepped outside and disappeared.

“Oh, Elle,” Naka sighed, no longer able to contain her entertained smile. “What am I going to do with you?”

“Force her to sit in a pool of icy water until she gets frostbite?”

Naka looked over at the shopkeeper, who quickly turned his back to avoid a reaction that he could only assume would end in some retaliation in her friend’s defense. Instead, Naka merely shrugged. “Sounds a bit cruel to me, but if you really think it’ll help some…”

Naka and the shopkeeper looked into each other’s eyes in absolute seriousness for a brief moment before erupting into laughter.

“What do you want me to do with this, Miss?” The shopkeeper held up a piece of the broken lamp, still chuckling uncontrollably.

“Chuck it?” Naka suggested. “And while you’re doing that, I was wondering how much you could offer me for these forks. They’re barely used, practically new…”

 -x-

Inside the Military Training Academy, located somewhere within the town that Naka and Ellire had taken refuge in, three boys had just taken a quick break from their training. Kengi was the tallest of the group, with slightly darker skin and curly dark brown hair. The second oldest was Caito, with longer blond hair that swept across his pale face and stopped just above the boy’s clear blue eyes. Lastly there was Ai, whose short black hair stuck up in the front. He had brown eyes and was at least a full head’s length shorter than the other two.

All three were dressed similarly. Their school uniforms included a black jacket with two green stripes making their way down the sleeves, the Earth Kingdom’s emblem embroidered across their backs. They had on a pair of matching pants and weren’t wearing any shoes, so that they could move around on the Academy’s padded floors more easily.

“Hey, I think I’m bleeding!” Ai exclaimed, pressing his hands against the bottom of his nose in an attempt to see if this really was the case. “Can you tell? Does this look like it’s bleeding to you?” he asked, tilting his head up so that the others could take a look if they so chose.

Kengi turned his head away. “Gross, dude! I don’t wanna see that!” He looked up to see Caito walking in the opposite direction without a word. Kengi cupped his hands around his mouth and called after his friend. “Hey, Caito! Where’re you off to?”

Caito stopped, turning over his shoulder to answer. “Just getting a sip of water. Don’t wait up for me.”

Ai shrugged, still glancing at his fingers distrustfully. “Don’t worry; we won’t.”

Rolling his eyes in response, Caito continued around the corner. As he reached the Academy’s lobby he spotted something interesting. It would appear that a female firebender were having some sort of spat with Mrs. Blastov at the front test. This was unusual, considering how unlikely it was to spot anyone from the Fire Nation around those parts.

“I just want you to tell me where the stupid inn is!” the girl was yelling as she leaned over the counter.

Mrs. Blastov wrinkled her nose. Although she was elderly and had the uptight gray bun to show for it, she refused to be outdone in a shouting match. “I did!” she shot back. “Now get out of my office!”

“Fine!”

“FINE!”

Caito hadn’t even noticed that he had been slowly inching forward until Ellire spun around and collided directly into him. “Ouch! Watch where you’re going, jerk!” She glared at him for about a millisecond before storming out of the glass doors.

He stared after her, mouth slightly ajar. In that moment a strange sensation came over the boy. It was as if he were suddenly filled with joy, Ellire’s image now imprinted in his mind. She was beautiful. She was more than beautiful; she was gorgeous. In fact, he didn’t even seem to mind her rudeness with as taken in by her as he was. Caito was, dare we say, in--

“And what are YOU staring at?”

Practically jumping where he stood, Caito turned to face Mrs. Blastov. She adjusted her obnoxiously large glasses with a cold stare as Caito slowly brought himself back to reality. “Oh! Sorry,” he muttered, shuffling awkwardly back from whence he came in a daze.

Upon re-entering the previous room he saw Ai and Kengi again, having not budged an inch since he left them. “That sure was quick,” Ai pointed out. “We hadn’t even gotten up yet.”

Kengi nodded. “Did the fountain get up move closer since I last saw it?”

Only then did Caito even realize that he’d entirely forgotten about his original intentions. He shrugged guiltily. “No water, but I DID just so happen to run into the future Mrs. Caito!”

Kengi and Ai both looked at each other in absolute seriousness before busting up into a fit of laughter. Caito frowned, now embarrassed. “Caito in a relationship?” Kengi managed between chuckles. “What a laugh!”

“Yeah!” Ai snorted in agreement. “What d’you bet she’s imaginary? Just like the last one!”

Rolling his eyes, Caito tried to intervene. “Sure she’s real! And gimme a break - that was ONE time! And I was little!”

“Is she pretty?”

“Yes!”

“Tall?”

“Sure!”

“Friendly?”

“Well...”

“A bender, perhaps?”

“Yes! Well, maybe. I mean, she looked like she was from the Fire Nation.”

Kengi crossed his arms and nodded in thought. “Yup. That about proves it... She’s most definitely made up.”

“Can you even hear yourselves? That proves absolutely nothing!” Caito argued. “And she does exist! I saw her with my own two eyes!”

“And does this mysterious Mrs. Caito Verra have a first name?” Ai asked mockingly.

“I’ll let you know as soon as she tells me!”

The giggle fits didn’t cease. Kengi practically had to rub his eye to keep from crying. “Wait wait wait -- so, you’re telling me that you didn’t even talk with her? After all that?”

Caito felt himself turning redder by the minute. “No, not exactly! She did call me a jerk and tell me to watch where I’m going... if that... counts?” Apparently not. This bit of information only seemed to increase the volume of the two boys, who were still cackling like two-tailed hyenas. Finally Caito had had enough and stomped his foot down, shouting, “That’s it! I know that this girl’s my soulmate, and I’m not going to let either of you try to tell me otherwise! One day I’m going to marry her, and find out just who she is! ...Probably not in that order, but you get the idea! Now, are you coming or not?” Without waiting for a response Caito walked past Kengi and Ai, who looked at each other once more nervously.

“D’you think he’s serious about it?” Ai asked, his voice lowered. Kengi shrugged, swinging his green gym bag over his shoulder and following after his friend.

“Nah. There’s a still a good chance that this mystery girl is another fake. And if not, well, she sounds too good for him anyways!”

-x-

The fog still hadn’t lifted by the time that Kumi’s fleet had set out. Blaise watched from the ship’s deck as the Fire Nation slowly disappeared in the distance the farther away the boat sailed with each crashing wave. The sky was overcast, thick gray clouds looming above her. Blaise silently prayed that there wasn’t a storm on its way. Things never did seem to end well for firebenders in a rainstorm...

She turned her head slightly to see a seemingly random police officer who was staring boredly off into the distance. Seeing it as the only appropriate thing to do in this situation, Blaise tried her hardest to provide him some company on the ship.

Step by step, Blaise inched closer and closer to the FNPD officer until she was at least an arm’s length or so away. She smiled up at him. Continuing to be ignored, Blaise slid several steps closer and leaned forward. “Hiya!”

No response.

“I’m Blaise!” She held out her hand. “Of course, I’m sure you already know that.” The silence ensued and she made a pouting face, pulling her arm back. “So! How’re you doing on this lovely and yet annoyingly cold morning? Er, afternoon, that is to say.”

Finally even Blaise grew fed up with the soldier. “Hey!” she hissed, throwing herself directly in front of the man’s face. She’d certainly like to see him try to ignore her NOW. “What’s the big idea, eh? I’m only trying to be nice!”

The Fire Nation police officer lifted an eyebrow and finally responded. However, his response was hardly what Blaise had been anticipating.

“Chief Kumi has instructed all those on board not to speak with you. Now, if you don’t mind, I wish to continue following her clear orders.”

Blaise practically laughed out loud. “You’ve got to be joking! What does Ol’ Ironface, or whatever it is they call her, hope to accomplish by cutting me off from the rest of the crew? I mean, I know that I’m not her favorite person in the universe, but don’t you agree that that’s just a little low?”

Silence.

“Yeah, that’s about the response I expected.” Blaise threw herself forward, hanging her arms over the ship’s edge, and buried her chin in them. She sighed and kept on talking to herself. “It’s not like it’s her job to dictate who I’m friends with. Or not friends with, as seems to be the case more often than not these days... I mean, what’s she really going to do because of some harmless conversation? FIRE you?”

The firebender pulled herself up, a pleased look upon her face once more. “Get it? Fire? It’s funny because we can bend... fire...” She scanned the area for any signs of the policeman who had stood there just moments ago, but he was nowhere to be seen. Blaise tried to keep from becoming disappointed at this.

“Does no one in the Fire Nation appreciate a good sense of humor!” she said loudly to no one in particular.

Suddenly Blaise felt a single drop of water land on the tip of her nose. She blinked in surprise, wrinkling her face. Blaise peered up at the gloomy sky once more. It would seem that Aeron, being the pansy that he truly was, had already curled up for a nap in some small corner somewhere sheltered in anticipation of the oncoming downpour.

Please let there not be rain, she thought to herself with crossed fingers.

-x-

“Are you sure this is such a good idea?” Naka asked, eyeing the sky above her doubtfully. She’d previously assumed that the bad weather would burn off by midday, but this was seeming less and less likely the more time passed. “I mean, can we even perform when it’s raining?”

Ellire finished tying off the banner above their stage, pulling its strings tightly. They were only about halfway done setting up the portable theater and still had at least another hour or so of work ahead of them.

“It better not!” Ellire said. “Otherwise what would be the point of all this? Performance space or not, you know I can’t firebend in when my hands are all wet!”

“I’m sure if you practiced enough...”

“That isn’t the point! I swear, if a single raindrop hits this stage--”

As if on cue, several light raindrops scattered across the village square. Ellire stood up and glared at the sky as she puffed out her chest stubbornly. “How dare you spite me!” she hissed at the thick gray clouds.

Naka sighed, lifting her arm above her head to form an umbrella of sorts as wind spiralled around in the shape of a half-circle, throwing water droplets out of the way of her head. “Y’know, Elle, you really shouldn’t tempt the weather gods. They don’t seem to like you any more than normal people do.”

Ignoring her friend, Ellire threw a threatening finger forward. “You stop this nonsense right now, or I’ll... I’ll... I’ll do something very unpleasant to the next waterbender I come across!”

There was a crash of thunder and the rain began the fall even heavier than before, drenching the firebender from head to toe. She clenched her fists, scowling. The still-dry Naka merely shrugged. “Told you so.”

Finally admitting defeat, Ellire chose to leave the scene. She pulled Naka’s other arm on her way past. “C’mon, Naka. We’re going INSIDE.”

-x-

In their one-roomed inn, Ellire had sprawled herself out dramatically across one of the two twin beds. Her back was facing upwards, her face shoved into a pillow. Naka sat on the other bed, watching her with a raised eyebrow.

“Hey, it’s not so bad...”

“Yes it is...” Ellire grumbled into the pillow.

“That is to say, things could certainly be a lot worse.”

“No they couldn’t.”

Naka sighed; Ellire always got like this on rainy days. She moved her lips into a whistling shape and blew a stream of wind in the firebender’s direction, flipping her onto her backside. “Maybe it’s a little damp outside! So what? There’s still loads to do.” Naka stood up and paced over to the window. Water dripped down in long streaks as the pitter-patter of rain tapped against the glass softly. “And perhaps it’s a good thing? It’s certainly been a while since the two of us did anything just for fun.”

Ellire glanced at Naka, still lying down. “Do you not think what we do is fun?”

“Sure! Sometimes it is, but... however much you try to disguise it as that, it just starts to feel like work after a while.” Naka pressed her hand against the cool glass and leaned forward to get a better look. “Maybe we’ll stick around a little longer this time and try to reschedule the magic show for when the weather’s cleared up? We could take a look around town, go window shopping, maybe learn a thing or two for once...”

“Are you seriously suggesting we go outside on a day like this? Might as well just stay here and complain about the rain until it decides to go away!”

“Loser,” Naka sighed, turning around and leaning against the windowsill. “You really hate the rain, don’t you?”

“You have NO idea.”

There was a loud knocking at the door and both girls practically jumped, making Ellire sit up. “I wonder who that could be,” Naka said calmly. “It’s not like we know anybody in town... or at least anybody who would want to see us, let alone know where we’re staying.”

As the knocking continued, Ellire finally got up to answer the door. Although this was likely more out of curiosity than anything else, Naka was still surprised at the gesture.

Ellire opened the door to see Caito standing before her, a cheesy grin on his face. He barely got through a full sentence to introduce himself when she slammed the door shut again and headed back towards her bed, where she lay down and stared up at the ceiling. Naka’s jaw dropped.

“Ellire! What in the heck was that for?!”

She shrugged. “Didn’t know ‘im.”

“But that’s... Elle, you just can’t--!” Naka sighed, instead of arguing merely deciding to answer for herself. It was a nice attempt after all, but she still couldn’t understand why her friend wouldn’t even want to let the stranger finish his pitch. When she swung the door open once more Caito was now staring with wide eyes, perhaps wondering just what had happened. “Sorry about my friend. I suppose you could say meeting strangers upsets her.”

“Does not.”

“Oh, shut it!”

Caito smiled weakly and rubbed the back of his head. “Oh, um... That’s okay! I’m Caito, with the Military Training Academy here. I couldn’t help but notice that you two seemed to be new to these parts, and so I doubted you knew about the ball they’re having tomorrow night, but pretty much everyone in town’s going. And as a student of the Academy I’m expected to bring a date... If you’d like to come, that is.”

Naka’s eyes lit up at the word ‘ball’. “A ball!” she squealed excitedly. “And we’re invited? Oh, Ellire, do you hear that? We’re going to a ball!” Caito practically had to take an uneasy step backwards to avoid the airbender as she leaned forward in anticipation. “And I’d love to be your date!”

“Actually, I was referring to your friend over there for that part.”

“What?” both Ellire and Naka asked at the same time.

Caito quickly backtracked. “Is... that okay?”

Ellire closed her eyes, making a face. “Absolutely--”

“That sounds wonderful!” Naka answered for her. She began quickly shoving Caito back out of their doorways, saying, “Then we’ll see you tomorrow night, yes? Thank you for stopping by!” As soon as the blond was out of the way Naka held her hand forward and blew the door shut again.

Groaning, Ellire leaned back once more. “I don’t see why you’re so excited about this. It’s just a dumb party.”

“Y’know, I actually thought YOU’D be the one happy about the ball. Not only is it something we can do out of the rain, but it sure beats sitting around here and waiting to reschedule a performance!”

“But I don’t go to parties for a reason!” Ellire pouted. “And it’s not just because you’re the only friend I have. I suppose I’m not half bad at dancing, but what would I even wear? I don’t own any dresses.”

Naka smiled, placing her hand on her best friend’s shoulder. “That can be easily fixed. First thing tomorrow morning, we’ve got a date to fix you up for!” Naka winked at Ellire, who smiled back appreciatively.

-x-

“You’re hurt.”

Jairin shook her head and pulled her sleeve up over her shoulder to cover up a nasty burn. Rei slid it down once more to get a better look at the wound. She pressed her finger against it lightly and Jairin winced in pain.

“Did the firebender do this to you?”

Jairin nodded.

The waterbender knelt down and uncapped a small pouch of water that was tied around her waist. Once opened, Rei pulled a floating blob of water from it and pressed it against Jairin’s burnt shoulder. It began to glow a lighter blue color. “Try not to move,” she instructed. “I’m not the best at this, but it should be better in a couple of days.”

At first Jairin was expecting the worst, so when a soothing sensation overcame her in the place where she had been previously sore came as a pleasant surprise. As soon as Rei had finished she sent the water back into its container.

Jairin stood up, relieved to find it no longer hurt her to get up. “Are we spending the night here?”

“Yup.” Rei lay down, curling into a tight ball. Jairin had made the cave out of a nearby rock formation in the forest, but she was still shocked at the idea of settling down for the night without any proper camping supplies.

“What about the fire?” Jairin asked curiously.

“Are you a firebender?”

“No.”

“And do I look like a firebender?”

“No... no, you don’t. But--”

Rei rolled onto her other side and closed her eyes, perfectly comfortable without any blanket at all. “Then it looks like we won’t be having a fire tonight. Trust me, it’s really not that cold... Try spending a night surrounded by snow and ice!”

Jairin frowned but didn’t say anything. From the looks of it, it was going to be a very long night. She glanced outside the cave’s entrance, where it was still raining pretty hard. Hopefully she could talk the assassin into buying sleeping bags for the two of them when they reached the next town.

She sat down, leaning against the hard rock behind her and rested her arms around her knees. Home is starting to sound real nice right about now, Jairin thought to herself, closing her eyes. It took some time, but eventually she, too, drifted off to sleep.

-x-

Kumi stood atop the ship, her fists clenched. Wet hair kept sticking to her face, pressed down with the falling rain. “Cowards!” she hissed through clenched teeth. “What’s the matter with you lot? Afraid to get a little wet? Get back on deck!”

But for the first time in what may have been ages Chief Kumi’s shouts were ignored. Instead, the police continued to hurry below deck and out of the weather’s reach. Blaise came to Kumi’s side and placed a friendly hand on her shoulder, which was immediately shaken off.

“Hey,” Blaise started, “you should head back inside as well. There isn’t anything happening out here anyway, and what good would you be as a commander if you caught a cold because of this?”

Kumi slit her eyes at Blaise in response. “Don’t you DARE tell me what I should and shouldn’t do.” Nonetheless, the firebender followed her shipmate’s advice and began down the flight of stairs that descended to the lower decks. Once she had reached the bottom she stopped and sat down on the last step. As much as she hated to admit it, the idea of not being able to give any orders for the time being made her feel useless. Of course, the rain didn’t help to improve her mood either.

Blaise found herself following after Kumi. As soon as the older Chief of Police had settled down she slid right in beside her. Kumi looked as if she were debating whether or not to shoo Blaise away but ultimately decided against it.

“Look, Chief...” Blaise said softly. “I know we got off to a bit of a rough start. And trust me, I’m the last person who’d want to be your enemy... at least, now that I’m kind of stuck with you. S-So, if there’s anything you’d like to say... to, y’know, relieve some of this tension that you - WE - that we seem to have... built... up.”

Kumi glanced over at Blaise, raising an eyebrow as she trailed off. She rubbed an eye, too tired to argue with her any more. “I have nothing to talk with you about.”

“Alright, then I’ll talk and you can just listen!”

“Oh, goodie...”

“I’ve been meaning to ask why you’re so set on capturing Naka and Ellire, but I suppose that can wait for when you’re in the mood. I don’t suppose you know how the three of us got into that business together? No?”

“Not a clue, much less do I care.” Kumi said, burying her chin in her knees.

“Come, now!” Blaise laughed. “Don’t they teach you anything in those fancy-shmancy Fire Nation law schools? You’re supposed to gather everything you can about your enemy before going up against them.” She paused to look off into the distance, as if remembering some better time. “I don’t have much when it comes to sob stories. That isn’t to say I was well off, either, but I didn’t mind it so much. See, I never knew my parents, and as such grew up in an orphanage just outside of the capitol. That’s where I met Ellire.

Being the only two benders in the place, Ellire and I got along right away. Naka showed up after her parents were killed. We were about eight at the time. I remember thinking it was strange, that they would bring an airbender into a Fire Nation orphanage, but I think it may’ve been that her family used to live nearby. Either that or the officials were just too lazy to make a trip over to the Western Air Temple.

In any case, the three of us always hung out together. They were like the little sisters that I’d never had. We used to hide our bending whenever people came in to look at us so that we wouldn’t get adopted, because that would mean being separated. But we each secretly knew that we couldn’t stay there forever.

One day an older lady came to take Ellire away. She felt empty after her husband passed away, or some depressing story like that. When Naka thought she wasn’t going to see Ellire again, she cried for days.

In about a week Ellire showed up again, sneaking in through our open window. She said she wasn’t happy in her new home, that it just wasn’t the same without us. She wanted to run away with us to make our own family, and for whatever reason we agreed. I don’t think anybody even really noticed that we were gone, but trust me, I was regretting it right off the bat.

Money was hard to come by, and food even more scarce. I thought people would be more willing to help out a couple of street children like us, but... I guess not. Eventually we started to rely on stealing what we needed to get by.

It was Naka’s idea to put on a performance for people. She found this giant jackalope running around in the garbage... Well, it was actually quite small at the time, but it’s grown a lot since then. Anyway, she named him Dandan and started teaching him all sorts of tricks that she combined with her airbending for a cooler effect. At first we were surprised that people would pay to see that sort of thing, but it made me start to wonder if we could make some extra coins putting on little shows for people.

With time we’d developed the performance group you now know as A Touch of Magic. Eventually saving up enough to get ourselves a caravan, and having a much larger Dandan to pull it, we started to travel around the Fire Nation.

I figure that’s when you first heard about us. Several years have passed, but I don’t suppose we’ve changed all too much. Like I told you before, last I heard before Naka and Ellire sent me packing was that they were headed to the Earth Kingdom to try their luck there.”

When the bender didn’t continue right away, Kumi looked up at Blaise, somewhat surprised to have received her entire backstory in such a small amount of time. “And after all that, after everything you three have been through together... you’re still going to help me capture them?”

Blaise nodded without any hesitation. “Yup! Those two water weasels had it coming the second they thought about hitting the road without me!”

Kumi very nearly cracked a smile at Blaise’s response. “That’s good. You would be of no use to me if you want crawling right back to them after all this.”

“No sir! I mean, Ma’am! I mean...”

“Blaise... just, stop trying.” Kumi got up and began to head off to her sleeping quarters.

“Yes, Chief...” Blaise’s eyes lit up. “Oh, hey! I got it right that time!”

“Goodnight, Blaise.”

Blaise’s smile faded as Kumi stepped out from under the lantern’s glow and disappeared into the darkness of the ship. She sighed. “Weird.”

Suddenly Aeron was at her side. He flapped his tiny green wings twice before landing on the step that Blaise was sitting on and shook himself off, several water droplets flying off of his scales in various directions.

“Where’ve you been off to?” Blaise asked.

I went for a quick flight outside. Unlike you, I am not bothered by the rain. I instead find it quite refreshing.

“Some dragon you are,” Blaise teased, holding out her hand as a step for Aeron to climb onto. From there she placed him on top of her head and got up, following after Kumi. “C’mon, it’s about time we got some shuteye.”

I couldn’t help but catch the tail end of your conversation with the Chief. Do tell me you’re not having second thoughts?

“Not at all. I am going to have my revenge, and it will be on my own terms, whether Ol’ Ironfire likes it or not. But for now, there’s not much more I can do than wait for her to lead me right to them...”

-x-

Back in the Earth Kingdom, Caito sat on his bed watching out the window. The moon was hidden by invisible rain clouds in the night sky, but its foggy outline could still be made out. Though it was cold and wet outside, Caito couldn’t help but feel overcome with excitement at the day’s events and the thought of the following night.

In just one short day he would see Ellire again. He would then confess his feeling so that they could be together forever, and when--

There a knock on the door. Caito jumped in surprise. His father opened in slowly and peeked his head into Caito’s room. “What are you still doing up, son? Tomorrow is as big a day as any. Remember that you still have to attend school, dance or not.”

Caito smiled back. “I know. Sorry, Dad... I was just getting to bed.”

His father nodded and shut the door once more. Caito leaned over and blew out the dim candle that sat on his bedside table before pulling the covers over himself. He closed his eyes and smiled, knowing that his night would be filled with good dreams.

Ellire’s? Not as such.

-x-

She was standing in the middle of a dark forest. It wasn’t raining there, but the trees were all bare. Wind whistled through them, rustling their branches together. But there was something else that drew in her attention.

It was like nothing she had ever seen before. The creature took the shape of a giant leopard, except that its thick fur was an unusual dark purple color and a pattern of black spots adorned its back.

It had large paws, its claws unsheathed, and a pair of sharp canines that could be seen when it bore its teeth. But perhaps its most terrifying feature was its eyes. They had no pupils, or anything else, for that matter, but glowed a bright purple, as if a light were being shined behind them.

The animal sat several feet away from Ellire, its tail flicking back and forth as it watched her intently. A chill ran down Ellire’s spine and the firebender took a step backwards.

“Greetings, Ellire.”

“W-Who are you?”

The creature smiled knowingly. “My title is of no importance. A little girl I once knew many moons ago called me Sol. You may refer to me as that, as you humans seem so set on giving a name to everything.” It lifted its head to the girl and she felt as if its glowing eyes were burning into her. “Welcome to the spirit world.”

“T-The spirit world?” Ellire stammered, her legs shaking slightly where she stood. She held an arm up in front of her face to see that it was a pale, glowing red color. Ellire continued to inspect it, her fingers outstretched. It appeared nearly translucent, as she could just about make out the scene before her. Ellire gasped in surprise.

“Then, that would explain why I’m all glow-y and stuff! A-And you must be... a spirit!”

Sol continued to watch Ellire without budging an inch. He sighed. “I hesitate to deem you sharpest tool in the shed, but... Yes, I am a spirit.”

“B-But, that doesn’t make any sense! How can I be in the spirit world?” Ellire asked. “I’m no Avatar! I don’t belong here!” Sol’s whiskers twitched in amusement. He flicked his tail once more back and forth.

“Not only the Avatar is destined for greatness. When I look at you, Ellire, I see an ambitious young woman with a thirst to prove herself. One does not need to know how to bend all four element to learn to control them... There is a power that has become forgotten to the human world. You have the capability to use this power... and I can teach you.”

Ellire blinked in surprise. Power? What was Sol going on about?

“Unless, of course, you would rather spend the rest of your days performing silly magic tricks for spare change?”

Ellire looked away, rubbing her hands together nervously. “Well... Not exactly. I mean, haven’t really thought much about my future...”

“Just think of the power that you could possess. The lives you could change. In theory, if you agreed to this, you could take whatever path you wanted.”

“I don’t know,” Ellire sighed. The whole thing just sounded unreal to her. “I guess I’m just confused, that’s all. It’s a lot to think about, all this.”

The spirit stood up, flexing its paws. Sol nodded understandingly before turning around slowly and padding off in the opposite direction.

“Take some time to mull the offer over. I will come and find you when you are ready.”


	3. Strange Meetings

Ellire shot her eyes open, relieved to find she was back at the inn. It had only been a dream, she told herself, and allowed her breathing to slow once more. A rather strange and slightly unnerving dream, but a dream nonetheless. She turned her head to the side to see Naka, who was sitting cross-legged on the opposite bed and was raising an eyebrow.

“Are... you okay over there?”

“Yeah,” Ellire replied, rubbing her eyes. “Just a bad dream.” She sat up and squinted towards the window. It really didn’t look all that much lighter than it had during the nighttime. “Is it seriously STILL raining?” she groaned.

Naka followed her gaze. Although it wasn’t pouring as hard as it had been the night before, the sky was still dark and wet. “Looks like it. But we can try to keep indoors if that’ll make you happy.” She leapt up suddenly and Ellire saw that her bed had already been made. “All right, hurry up and get ready! You’ve already slept most of the morning in and we still have to get you a dress picked out!”

Ellire groaned and forced herself out of bed. The current state of her hair suggested a tornado had blown through the village during the night. “And what about you?” she yawned, stretching her arms towards the ceiling.

“Hey, I never said I wouldn’t be looking as well,” Naka winked.

-x-

“Well? What do you think?” Naka asked, showing Ellire in front of the full-length mirror. She stared back at herself for moment, inspecting the dress that her friend had picked out for her. Ellire frowned.

“Oh.”

“Oh?” the airbender echoed. “Is that a good ‘oh’ or a bad ‘oh’? Because I’m starting to think you’re swaying more to the negative side.”

“I don’t know. The dress is fine, it’s just so... so... GREEN.”

“Green?”

“GREEN.”

Naka looked at Ellire, slightly concerned. “And is green not your color?”

“I have a hard time believing green can be anyone’s color,” Ellire confirmed, still eyeing the outfit distastefully. Naka sighed.

“Elle! You’re in the Earth Kingdom; of course all the dresses are going to be some shade of green!” Naka laughed. “At least this one’s better than the last three you tried on.” She looked around, spotting the shopkeeper, and proceeded to flag her down. “Excuse me, Ma’am, but how much for this dress?”

The shopkeeper stopped, looking over her shoulder. “Ah yes, what a pretty shade of green!” Ellire stuck out her tongue in disgust. “I give you it for five silver pieces. Great deal, no?”

“Five silver?!” Naka’s jaw dropped. She quickly began ushering Ellire away, a nervous smile on her face. “On second thought, we’ll keep looking! After all, fifth time’s the charm... right?”

“See, if only you had done a better job turning out a profit when we first got here...” Ellire muttered.

“Oh, just be quiet and help me find the clearance section!”

-x-

Rei and Jairin had spent the last couple of hours trudging through a dirt trail in the forest. The rain didn’t seem to be helping their pace much, although unlike the earthbender, Rei didn’t seem to mind it nearly as much. Jairin could’ve sworn she was enjoying herself even more than before.

“This is ridiculous!” Jairin complained, shivering. It hadn’t occurred to her to pack a blanket or anything else for warmth. “It’s going to take us twice as long to get anywhere like this!”

“Actually...” Rei said, holding out the palm of her hand into the rain, “we might be able to get there twice as fast with these weather conditions.”

Jairin squinted at Rei. “What’s that supposed to mean? ...And why are you giving me an evil smile like that?”

But before Jairin even had time to realize what she’d just agreed to, the young earthbender found herself clinging to a slab of stone behind Rei, who stood up as if she were surfing (which she just about was). The waterbender moved her arms slightly, keeping up a consistent water current from the falling rain. Rei burst into a fit of maniacal cackling just as the pair blew past a traveling family on their homemade water slide.

The family ran off the road just before being swept up in the floor. A little boy nearly slipped and hurt himself before his mother pulled him to his feet again, shooting an angry look in Rei’s direction. “Sorry!” Jairin called back to them from over her shoulder, a terrified look on her face. “Rei, are you sure this is such a good idea?”

“Of course it is! Look - I can see the town already!”

Sure enough, there it was a little ways off. Rei lunged forward, speeding up their ride as Jairin opened her mouth to let out a scream but failed to make any sound come out. Within another minute or so the two benders were rapidly approaching the town’s gates. Rei bit her lip in anticipation of the next challenge: “Now, the real trick is getting it to break just in time...”

“WHAT?!”

“Okay, hold on tight!” As the tall gates grew dangerously nearer, Rei leaned to the side, sending their stone raft swerving in a circle. Jairin held on tighter, shutting her eyes tightly. A large wave splashed up against the side of the gates, providing a cushion to slide them back in the opposite direction. Rei threw her arms down, forcing the river back into the ground. The stone came to a smooth stop and the waterbender placed her hands on her hips, clearly pleased with her work.

As soon as the opportunity presented itself Jairin jumped up, in more of a hurry to get off the unsafe craft than she’d ever been before. Unfortunately she almost immediately slipped on the now-muddy ground around them, falling flat on her face.

“Our timing was perfect!” Rei exclaimed, apparently oblivious to Jairin’s current predicament. “If we’d waited any longer we wouldn’t have enough rain to pull off something like that. Look, the sky’s already clearing up!”

Jairin rubbed an arm against her cheek without much success. She picked herself up again, moving her wrists in a sort of rolling motion that seemed to help pull the mud off of her and fling it back onto the ground. Rei turned around, only just noticing what she was doing.

“Oh! Let me help with that!” she offered all too willingly.

Jairin began shaking her head wildly. “No! I mean, not you--”

But before she had a chance to stop Rei she went right ahead and pulled an enormous blob of clean water from the ground, sending it in Jairin’s direction. As soon as it had run into the ground once more Jairin, no longer covered in mud, instead stood looking miserable and dripping wet. While Rei perhaps figured what she had done was helpful, Jairin knew within another minute or so she could’ve cleaned up the mess entirely on her own.

“Hey... Rei?”

“Mm?”

“Would you mind taking a step forward for me?”

Rei, knowing no reason to his distrust Jairin, did so. Angrily, Jairin stopped her foot into the mud, causing a patch of harder dirt to pop up from under Rei and send her flying into the air. With a splash she, too, landed in the mud. Jairin chuckled softly to herself and started through the town gates.

“Next time, keep your silly water tricks to yourself!” she said. “I’m not paying you to splash around in the rain.”

Rei got up again and lifted her arms, pulling a ring of water up with them. She then released it over herself, washing away all of the mud and quickened her pace to catch up with Jairin. “You watch yourself, you little brat! Last time I checked, I was the one doing the job. You just wanted to tag along and watch.”

The earthbender stopped and turned to face Rei. “Fair enough. Next time you feel like making a giant water slide I’ll just watch!”

“Y’know, kid, I think I’m starting to like you,” the waterbender announced, placing her arm around Jairin.

Jairin merely smiled, her gaze still fixed forward. “Yeah, yeah. Cut the bonding nonsense and help me find our targets, won’t you?”

The two benders then proceeded to search the town, keeping an eye out for any sign of Ellire and Naka. At least, that’s what Jairin was doing; Rei, on the other hand, seemed a little less willing to find them at all. While Jairin pressed forward the waterbender held back away, waiting for the opportune moment to slip away and leave her there.

“Look!” Jairin shouted, turning around. Rei froze in place and smiled innocently. Her plan now foiled, Rei waited as the earthbender ran towards her, pointing. “This proves it; they’re definitely here!”

“Oh, look. The rain seems to be slowing down.”

“Never mind that! Do you know what that is?” Jairin pushed Rei forwards to show her the half-set up stage. Beside it sat A Touch of Magic’s wagon, Dandan napping in front.

Rei merely shrugged. “I’m sure you’re going to tell me.”

“It’s their performance stage! That means they’re here somewhere!”

“I thought we already knew that?”

“Well. Now we know for sure!” Jairin gave Rei a stern look. “I think we should start by asking around town for any signs of them. Chances are anyone who’s seen the show will recognize them.” Rei nodded as the earthbender walked off in the other direction. Perhaps it was best that she waiting before attempting to ditch her once more.

“Ah, good choice! That’ll be two silver pieces for both dresses.”

Out of the corner of her eye Rei saw two girls paying a shopkeeper, who smiled and thanked them. They didn’t look like they were from the Earth Kingdom, but their current attire seemed to suggest otherwise.

“Excuse me,” she addressed them, “but me and my friend have come to see A Touch of Magic -- the magic show in town.”

Naka smiled excitedly. “Elle! Someone wants to see us perform! You see, we actually--”

Ellire covered the airbender’s mouth distrustfully. “You going to have to wait,” she told Rei. “The magic show’s on hold because of the rain, but if we’re lucky it’s nearly done by this point.”

Rei nodded, still having no clue who it was she was speaking with. “And where might I find the actors?”

“Uhm... well, there is a ball tonight. Apparently the whole town’s going.”

“Wonderful!” Rei exclaimed, she, too, being entranced by the word ‘ball’. “I suppose can I wait that long to speak with them.”

-x-

The festivities were already well into full swing by the time that Ellire and Naka arrived. The two girls stood in the ballroom’s doorway for several long minutes, taking in the unusual atmosphere of the pIace. They were about to enter a large, bowl-shaped room, with golden lights along the walls and a fake cloud-covered sky painted above them. The attendees weren’t so dancing so much as standing around in huddled masses, their conversations only just making it over the sound of an orchestra playing.

“Seems awfully fancy for some small town smack-dab in the middle of the Earth Kingdom,” Naka muttered to her companion.

Ellire made a face, hardly noticing the airbender’s comment. “So. Why are we here, again?”

“Because a certain someone is supposed to be meeting up with a rather cute boy,” Naka mused.

“...Yeah, but. WHY are we here?”

“Did you not hear or was that not enough of a convincing reason by itself?”

With a shrug, Ellire continued to scan her eyes across the room, seemingly unwilling to step further in until she felt completely safe. “If you’re so interested in that Canto kid-”

“Caito.”

“-then why didn’t YOU come with him?”

It was just then that Caito rejoined the girls, pulling along Kengi and Ai with both arms. “See?” he was saying excitedly. “I TOLD you I didn’t make her up!”

“Okay, so she’s real! Big whoop!” Ai said, shaking out of Caito’s grasp.

“Probably a criminal or something, knowing Caito’s luck,” Kengi chuckled softly under his breath. His comment was acknowledged by a hard stomp to the foot. With a yelp, Kengi lifted his leg and winced before shooting an angry glare in his friend’s direction.

Ellire and Naka exchanged glances.

Finally the younger girl threw her arm forward with cheesy grin. “Hi, I’m Naka! It’s a pleasure!” The two other boys reached out to shake hands with her, sharing their identities in an equally forced manner. Ellire crossed her own arms and said nothing, making it only too painfully clear that she wanted nothing to do with the male half of the species for the time being.

“So!” Caito laughed nervously, clapping his hands together. “Would you-”

“Care to dance?” Kengi interrupted, holding out his arm for Naka.

She blushed, looking away. “Well, it’d be terribly rude of me to turn down such a kind offer!” With a polite giggIe Naka took Kengi’s hand and the two of them ventured further into the ballroom.

Ai yawned obnoxiously and began in the opposite direction without saying a word. Caito looked towards Ellire expectedly and was rather disappointed to find the firebender pushing her way past him. “Where’re you off to?”

“Getting something to drink. Don’t wait up.”

Caito’s face feII and he attempted to catch up with Ellire. Unfortunately, before he could she had already disappeared into the sea of party-goers.

-x-

“Jairin. Just WHAT do you think you’re doing?”

“Trying to climb in through that there open window! See, maybe if you could just lift me a-”

“Might I suggest the DOOR?” Rei hissed back.

Jairin frowned, lowering the dirt below her feet so that she was level with her hired assassin once more. “But I thought we weren’t invited?”

“No, not technically,” Rei said with a roII of her eyes, “but apparently the whole town’s going. No one would really care either way. Unless, of course, we broke in through the window and caused a scene - THEN people might start to get a little suspicious.”

Shrugging, the young earthbender followed Rei around to the front of the building and the two of them entered. A discrete smile slid its way across Rei’s face; this was the perfect situation in which she could slip away unnoticed and circle back the way she’d come.

-x-

It wasn’t long before Ellire had grown tired of the ball. Half tempted to head on back to the inn, she instead relocated to a nearby patio for some fresh air. Thankfully the rain had completely ceased for the first time that day. The firebender leaned over the railing with an exasperated sigh.

“Oh, there you are!” a male’s voice rang out from behind her.

Hair standing up on the back of her neck, Ellire whirled around to find herself practically face-to-face with Caito. “I thought I said don’t wait up?” she growled back.

Caito smiled. “You also said you were going to get a drink, but I don’t see you with one of those.”

“They didn’t have anything I like.”

Ellire turned around again, perhaps hoping that Caito would get the message and go away. He didn’t. “Say, you’re from the Fire Nation, aren’t you?” Beat. “I don’t think green’s really your color.” Ellire continued to stare off at the nearby forest without a word. Caito stepped forward and placed his arms across the railing beside her, determined as ever. “It is Ellire, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” the bender finally answered. Caito’s eyes lit up at this.

“Ellire. Sweet. Definitely does sound Fire Nation-y.” He cleared his throat and turned around to use the railing for back support. “So, uh, are you planning on staying in the Earth Kingdom for long?”

Ellire shrugged, still avoiding eye contact. “I dislike attachments.”

“Well. If you change your mind, my place has a guest room, which certainly beats the inn by a longshot. I’m sure Dad wouldn’t-”

Caito was cut short when Naka came dashing outside. “We’ve got company!” she was saying with wide eyes.

Ellire stood up straight. “Great, who’d we piss off this time?”

“Remember Jairin? Well, she’s here, and is accompanied by at least one chick from the Water Tribe.”

Ellire slit her eyes. “Oh, joy.”

“Jairin? Water tribe?” Caito looked from Naka to Ellire with a confused expression.

“It’s a long story,” Ellire said. “Look, I’ll stay here and hold them off. Do you think you can wake Dandan and meet me at the edge of the village with the cart?”

“I’d have to take everything down first,” Naka frowned. “Are you sure you can’t come with?”

“We won’t be able to get anything done if we’re being attacked,” Ellire pointed out.

Naka sighed. “Fine. But I’ll need at least twenty minutes to pack it all up on my own.”

“Twenty minutes, tops.”

Without a word Naka jumped several feet higher than necessary into the air to hop the railing. The girl then formed a blue-tinted ball of wind beneath her and rode it around the corner like a vehicle. Ellire rolled her eyes.

“Woah, and she’s an airbender?” Caito exclaimed, leaning halfway over the patio railing.

Before Ellire had time to respond, the ground beneath her shot up into the air, launching her out forward and directly into the drunk of a tree.

“What are you waiting for?” Jairin demanded from the doorway. “Get her while she’s down!”

Rei hesitated momentarily before shooting a jet of water in Ellire’s direction. The firebender quickly rolled to her side, narrowly dodging the attack.

“Hey! Whatever happened to using your words?” Caito called out angrily. He was answered by a thick wave of dirt that nearly knocked him over. Rei and Jairin pushed past him and hopped over the railing after Ellire, who made a dash towards the woods to hopefully draw the fight away from outside eyes.

Had she recalled that trees are flammable, her plan just might have worked. Instead it took only a couple of counter attacks before a couple of bushes caught fire, lighting up the area with a glowing orange.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Caito shouted, suddenly at Ellire’s side again. “You’re gonna light the whole area on fire!”

“Well, it’s a good thing I said I didn’t like attachments!” Ellire launched another fireball in Rei’s direction, but it was quickly extinguished by a small tidal wave.

Despite Rei’s waterbending, several surrounding trees had become engulfed in the quickly spreading wall of fire. The increasingly thin air sent Jairin into a coughing fit, the heat disrupting her concentration on earthbending. Ellire took the opportunity to attempt to catch up with Naka, but was disappointed to find Caito not far behind. “Why don’t you go get help? Sure beats standing around in my way!”

“Not until you tell me why you’re being attacked!” Caito shot back.

“That’s none of your business!”

-x-

Naka had nearly perfect timing, arriving at the edge of the village just moments before she caught sight of the fire in the distance. Within seconds two figures came charging towards her, Rei and Jairin hot on their trail. Ellire and Caito hopped onto the wagon next to her.

“Go go go!”

“Wait, what’s he still doing here?” Naka demanded.

“You’re preaching to the choir, hun. If it were up to me he’d have been gone a long time ago.”

Caito frowned. “I’m right here, you know!”

Just then a large slab of rock came hurling overhead and very nearly hit the wagon. Without a word Naka tightened her hold on Naka’s reins and made a clicking noise with her tongue, sending the cart into motion. The group didn’t made it far, however, before a series of sharp, jagged rock began shooting up from the path beneath them. A couple of the rocks threw the wagon off-center, nearly tipping it onto its side. Dandan skid to a halt to prevent this and a jetstream of water pushed the trio out of their seats and onto the damp soil below. Moments later Rei and Jairin were upon them.

“Didn’t expect to see me again so soon, did you?” Jairin cooed.

Ellire sneered. “Oh, yes. I’m sure Mommy and Daddy would be so proud of you right now.”

“Would someone PLEASE just tell me what this is all about!” Caito exclaimed, throwing his arms out to the side.

“Ellire and I are thieves,” Naka explained coolly. “We looted everything of value from Jairin’s place a couple days ago, which really isn’t saying much, considering we could barely afford a single room at the inn afterwards.”

“Hold up, are you trying to tell me that you two actually ARE criminals?” Caito looked betrayed upon realizing this. “Which would mean… that they’re the good guys?”

“Good is matter of perspective,” Ellire said with a shrug.

The ground shook slightly, drawing everyone’s eyes to Jairin. “Why are you just standing there while they sit around conversing?” she demanded. “This isn’t what I’m paying you for!”

Rei didn’t respond. Caito stood up again and offered a hand out to Ellire. The firebender ignored it, picking herself up and helping Naka to her feet as well. “Look, I’ve only just met most of you girls,” Caito began slowly, “but I think it’s safe to assume that we’ve all gotten off on the wrong foot. Whatever quarrel it is you’re having, I’m sure that if you take it to the Earth Kingdom officials they’ll be more than happy to sort things-”

The female benders seemed to erupt all at once:

“Absolutely not!”

“Do you realize how quickly word would get back to the Fire Nation if we were arrested here!”

“I can’t get banished again!”

“I didn’t come all this way for nothing!”

Caito pursed his lips together. “Defensive bunch, aren’t you?” They could now hear panicked voices from a little ways away. Undoubtedly the forest fire had continued to grow larger, finally catching the villager’s attention.

“Tell you what,” Rei said, “who’s in favor of forgetting any past disagreements in light of skipping town before people start asking questions?”

Ellire and Naka exchanged glances. Naka shrugged. “I’m game if you are.”

“Wait, you can’t go about making deals with them!” Jairin gasped. “I hired you to do a job!”

“Yeah, and you’re like, twelve years old.”

“Fourteen!”

Ignoring them, Ellire began climbing onto the cart. “Well, are we going or not?”

“You can’t just run off like that,” scoffed Caito. “That’s totally not the morally responsible way to handle this situation!”

Ellire rolled her eyes so hard they may as well have fallen out of her head. “Con artists, thieves, responsible for thousands in destroyed property… Do you really think either of us have any concern for the ‘morally responsible’?”

Caito’s face fell. "I don't believe it. I thought you were a genuinely nice person when we first met!"

"Oh God, whatever gave you that impression?"

Feeling himself grow red in the face, Caito lunch forward. He was quickly intercepted by Naka, who thrust her fist out, sending a gust of wind in the boy’s direction and knocked him to his knees. "Oh no, did I actually hurt her him?" she immediately let out, cupping her hands over her mouth.

"He'll be fine," Ellire promised. "Whether he reports us or not, I suggest we put as many miles as possible between us and this village.”

“Seconded,” Rei chimed in. “But, has anyone seen where Jairin went?”

Ellire shrugged. “Probably realized she was outnumbered and ran off, tail between her legs. More importantly, is everyone ready to hit the road?”

“Yes, yes, wait up!” Naka said, floating herself next to Ellire at the front of the vehicle. She picked up Dandan’s reigns and repeated her clicking noise.

By the time Caito struggled to his feet again, the wagon had almost entirely disappeared into the trees. The boy knocked a bit of dirt from his tunic. Turning around, it occurred to him just how bad the fire Ellire had started really was. With one last look over his shoulder Caito ran back towards the village, willing to help out in whatever way he could.

-x-

The sun had only just started to rise when Kumi’s ships arrived on Earth Kingdom soil. A tad off-balance from having been at sea for so long but trying her best to hide it, the Chief of Police paced to the edge of the docks and started off into the distance. A dull gray blanketed the silhouettes of treetops, and what looked like a thick stack of smoke protruded from a portion of them a ways in the distance. Kumi wrinkled her nose and turned to find Blaise standing a little ways away with that obnoxious grin of hers.

“I wonder what happened over there.”

“Oh, a fire, most definitely!” Blaise responded, bounding to her side.

Kumi took a deep breath. “Yes, I know that much. I was mostly wondering whether or not our… friends had anything to do with it.”

“Ah.” Blaise looked back towards the trees in thought. “A bit unlike Ellire to leave such an obvious trail, but it’s certainly worth looking into.”

“You two!” Two Fire Nation policemen turned their heads in Kumi’s direction. “Make sure the ships are being unloaded properly and prepare the troop for the journey on foot. We’ll start by investigating the wreckage up ahead. And I do hope that this provides us something useful to go off of,” Kumi added quickly in Blaise’s direction. “For your sake.” On that note Chief Kumi spun around after the two officers.

Atop Blaise’s shoulder, Aeron stretched out his tiny wings. You know, I’m getting quite bored of her short temper, the dragon yawned. Perhaps she should stir things up a bit. Tell a badly timed joke from time to time.

Blaise practically snorted at this. “Old Ironfire telling jokes? Yeah, sure, maybe when koala sheep fly!”

-x-

Within an hour Chief Kumi had begun to lead her men inland. Although most of them set out on foot, they had several ostrich horses at their disposal. Three of the creatures carried supplies towards the back of the group while Kumi and Blaise rode theirs up front.

The bright sun was already well into the sky by the time the unusual police squad had arrived at the wreckage. For the most part all of the village’s buildings were still standing, save a couple with crumbling rooftops, but the blackened trunks of fallen trees practically littered the ground. A thick layer of gray and white ash coated most surfaces. This was likely the cause of the coughing fits that broke out every so often amongst the troop since they entered the village.

You told me your buddy was a firebender as well, but until now I wouldn’t have assumed that meant pyromaniac as well, Aeron muttered, his scale-covered green tail curling around the back of Blaise’s neck.

Blaise didn’t respond. Perhaps she, too, was a bit taken back by the devastation.

People took notice of the Fire Nation officials outside of their own turf, but ultimately seemed too distracted to do or say anything about it. Finally Kumi came to a halt near the center of the village and dismounted her ostrich horse. The Chief of Police spotted a group of boys, who coincidentally happened to be Caito, Kengi, and Ai, and approached them.

Mid-conversation, the boys fell silent as Kumi caught their attention. For the most part all three of them were nearly a head taller than Kumi, but there was something intimidating about her presence that seemed to keep them from hardly noticing this fact. “How did this happen?” Kumi asked none of them in particular.

The boys’ eyes shifted between each other uneasily. “It was a firebender,” Ai finally said. “Caito here saw the whole thing. She obviously wasn’t from around here, and he was just about to make a move on her when she went rhino bat crazy on him and started shooting up the place with fireballs!”

Caito elbowed Ai in the chest. “I told you, it wasn’t like that! It was self defense,” he insisted. “We were attacked by two other strangers and she was just trying to get away. I don’t think she meant to hurt anyone.”

“Y’know, a part of me always suspected your first relationship would go up in flames,” Kengi mused. “I just never expected it to be so literal!”

“I’ll have you know, you two are actually the worst friends I could possible ask for,” Caito whined.

Chief Kumi reached into the side of her ostrich horse’s saddle and pulled out a scroll. The Chief of Police then unrolled the object, revealing the wanted poster for Ellire and Naka, and held it out to the group of boys. “The firebender that was here. Did she look like this?”

“Yes!” Kengi exclaimed. “Exactly! That’s her and her hot friend!”

Kumi nodded and rolled the thing up again. “And do you know where they were headed?”

“Well, they left on the Eastern road, but no one really went after them,” Caito said slowly.

“Yeah, and whose fault was that?”

“Oh, shut up!”

Kumi rolled up the scroll again and placed it back into its pouch. “The Fire Nation thanks you for your assistance. Your accounts have been most helpful.”

“Most helpful?” Ai echoed under his breath. “Do people really talk like that over there?”

Kumi was just beginning to mount her ostrich horse again when Blaise quite literally sprung up from the other side of the beast with a toothy grin, startling the Chief of Police. Relaxing again, Kumi climbed onto the ostrich horse and tried her best to ignore Blaise, who immediately began rambling on.

“Look, I know we’re kind of on a tight schedule here, but since we’re already here and there’s this lovely little jewelry store just right over there, I was wondering if perhaps I could borrow a couple--"

Without warning, Kumi kicked her heels into the side of her ostrich horse, causing the animal to charge forward and, in the process, hitting Blaise hard enough in the shoulder as it passed by to nearly cause the girl to lose her footing. Aeron flew up into the air with an unusually audible screech and circled Blaise twice before landing on the top of her head with a low hissing sound. Trying her best not to react to this rude gesture (and obvious power play), Blaise clenched her fists, tight balls of heat beginning to radiate inside of them.

Once she had calmed down enough to grab her own ostrich horse’s reigns without melting them accidentally, Blaise mounted it and followed Kumi in the direction of the rest of the Fire Nation troop.

Don’t worry, Aeron cooed. Once this is all over you can get even with her as well.

Blaise wrinkled her nose unhappily. If only it were that simple.

-x-

As for our heroes, if they even have the right to call themselves that, Ellire, Naka, and their newfound companion Rei didn’t stop the wagon once until the sun was well up into the sky. Starving but too exhausted from the night before to prepare anything, the trio set up camp in broad daylight under the shade of a wide tree.

The area opened up into a small meadow, filled with tall grass and tiny yellow and white flowers. A little ways off a creak could be heard. Alas, the girls were hardly able to enjoy their surroundings due to the fact that they were currently experiencing difficulties keeping their own eyelids open.

Having an easier time warming herself than someone who wasn’t a firebender would, Ellire offered up her sleeping bag to Rei, who had none. This gesture even surprised Naka, who hadn’t seen her friend do a single thing out of the goodness of her heart in ages.

Cuddling up next to Dandan’s thick jackalope fur, Ellire drifted blissfully out of consciousness, entirely unaware of the small army of Fire Nation officials that was already so hot on their trail.


	4. Shadows

Ellire’s eyes shot open and she was half surprised to find that she had already been standing. The sky above was almost a pitch black and Ellire swore she could hear wind as it whistled between darkened trees, yet the air felt deathly still. Something about the whole scene gave Ellire the impression that she ought to feel frightened, or lost. But she didn’t.

Instead there was something strangely comforting about this place.

A twig snapped from somewhere behind Ellire. She whipped her head around to see a majestic feline surrounded by its familiar purple glow.

“Sol.”

The leopard-like spirit’s whiskers twitched in amusement. “You remembered.”

“It’s not every day one gets to meet a spirit,” Ellire pointed out. “Also kind of hard to forget such a big cat with eyes like a colored light bulb. So what’s the deal? You here to give me another sales pitch or whatever?”

“There is no need,” Sol said, his voice deep and soothing. “Your mind has already been made up.”

The firebender furrowed her eyebrows. “I don’t remember agreeing to anything.”

“You are like an open book to me. There is a hunger inside of you that wants to be recognized, admired… even envied.”

Ellire squinted. “And… you can make that happen? If I learn this… this ‘shadowbending’ thing?”

“There are few outside of the spirit world who can harness the power of darkness,” Sol purred. “Do not deny that the mere idea of this power entices you.”

A silence lingered in the air and Ellire held out the palms of her hands in front of her. They had an eerie orangey-red glow to them. She opened and closed her hand several times before looking back up to meet Sol’s eyes.

“What do I have to do?”

-x-

It was still light out by the time Ellire’s eyes fluttered open again. She sat upright a tad too fast and blinked several times before being able to see straight. From just behind her Dandan let out a thunderous yawn and stretched out his front paws. Naka and Rei were already up, and she spotted them sitting in the middle of the meadow a little ways away.

“So you came here all the way from the North Pole?” Naka was saying. The airbender was sprawled out on the grass, limbs outstretched.

Rei nodded. “Yup! Rode on the back of my dear childhood friend, Loosha the manatee cow! I’m actually on my way to the Southern Water Tribe right now. Just as soon as I figure out how to pay for the voyage over there, in any case.”

“Nice,” Naka smiled. “Elle and I are actually new around here as well. Up until a couple weeks ago we living in the Fire Nation.”

“Why’d you leave?”

Naka sat up again. “Well. You know that earthbender girl who hired you to hunt us down?”

“Yes?”

“She might be the youngest person we’ve pissed off, but she certainly isn’t the first.”

Rei nodded slowly. “I see.”

“Hey guys,” Ellire said from behind the two benders. Rei and Naka looked over their shoulders to see the girl standing a little ways away. “How long was I out?”

“Ages,” Rei answered.

“It’s about an hour past noon. The two of us have been starving this whole time, but we didn’t want to wake you.”

“I think we still have bunch of snacks packed in the wagon,” Ellire commented, already starting to circle back. She could’ve sworn she heard Naka say something back but couldn’t make it out and then never bothered to investigate. Back under the shade of the tree, Ellire untied the curtain at the wagon’s rear and pulled it aside, only to find a familiar figure curled up on top of the folded stage inside.

Ellire blinked in surprise. “Um… guys?”

But before she had time to explain Jairin’s eyes flew open and the earthbender leapt forward, knocking Ellire backwards. In mere seconds the two were back up on their feet and Ellire snapped with both of her hands, igniting them in a ball of flame. She threw several poorly aimed punches in Jairin’s direction, who easily ducked out of the way of each of them.

It was at this point that the others realized what was going on. Naka began dashing over, but Rei stayed grounded and swung her arms over her head, summoning forth a sizeable wave from the nearby creek. Unfortunately, this seemed to hurt Ellire more than Jairin upon impact, extinguishing her fiery gloves.

Ellire frowned and flicked her hands out to the side to shake off the water. “Can you not?” she growled.

Rei winced. “Sorry!”

Now it was Naka’s turn to lend a hand. Jairin pulled a large chunk of solidified dirt from the ground and hurled in the direction of Naka and Rei, but the airbender quickly knocked it to the side with a large gust of wind. The dirt clump smashed against a tree trunk and crumbled into tiny pieces. Naka then lifted her arm again, suspending Jairin in the air. The younger failed about some, shrieking, “Put me down, you barbarian! That’s cheating!”

“What are you even doing here?” Ellire demanded, folding her arms. “I thought we ditched you back at the last village.”

“Thought wrong then, didn’t you? You betrayed my trust - all three of you - and I’m not going home until I have something to show for it!”

“Well, brownie points for being such a trooper,” Naka tried.

Rei bit at her lower lip. “But what are we supposed to do with her now?”

“There’s some rope in the back. We could easily tie her up, leave her here…”

“We can’t do that!” Naka gasped. “What if no one finds her?”

Ellire shrugged. “Not our problem.”

“What if we take her with us?” suggested Naka.

“Why, because you think kidnapping is just one more charge that will look good on our wanted posters?”

“Actually Ellire’s got a point,” Rei chimed in. “Petty theft and fibbing is one thing, but I didn’t sign up for kidnapping.”

“...You didn’t sign up for anything. You tried to kill us and then for some reason came with.”

“Irrelevant.”

“Hey, but hear me out,” Naka went on. “She’s not going to willingly go back on her own, right? So if it comes down to that or leaving her behind and possibly getting her killed-”

“Alright, fine! We’ll take her with us!”

Jairin waved her arms in the air, trying to get the group’s attention. “Hey! Don’t I get any say in this?!”

She was promptly ignored and Ellire went on: “We’ll take her with us. Once we reach the next town we’ll lie low for a bit so that we don’t draw attention to the situation. From there we’ll write out a ransom note, have it delivered to Mr. and Mrs. Cole, and hopefully it won’t be long before they set up a hostage exchange thing. More money for us, the brat off our hands - it’s a win/win situation!”

Satisfied with this decision, Naka released the young earthbender, dropping her back onto the ground with a loud thud. The following half hour was spent wrestling a kicking and screaming Jairin back into the back of the wagon, where she was then bound and gagged.

-x-

After having packed up after lunch, Ellire, Naka, and Rei travelled onward for some time more. The path they were taking through the woods was for the most part quiet, save the crunching of leaves underneath the wagon’s giant wooden wheels and Dandan’s feet. Occasionally a lizard bird would fly over heard or scurry across their path, but the group felt otherwise alone.

As the sky began to darken the girls pulled over just far enough into the woods to keep hidden from anyone travelling along the path. Ellire lit a small campfire which she and Rei sat cross-legged in front of, having just finished snacking on trail mix (which was unfortunately what the majority of their meal consisted of).

“Y’know, it’s kinda nice having someone besides Naka to talk to,” Ellire was saying. “I mean, without feeling like I have to lie about what’s actually going on, because in my experience that’s never been very good for helping build successful relationships.”

Rei half-smiled. “So, has is always been just the two of you, or…?”

Ellire began to fuss with her hair a bit before answering. “Well. There used to be someone else, but… I didn’t exactly work out.”

“Sensitive subject?”

“No!” the firebender shot back defensively. “I can talk about. We just didn’t see eye to eye on a few things, that’s all. She thought one of us needed to officially take over as troop leader. And... so did I.”

Meeting Ellire’s eyes, Rei nodded slowly. “I see. I’m sorry you couldn’t work it out.”

“Hey, I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”

Rei and Ellire looked up to see Naka hovering above them and briefly wondered how long she’d been standing there. “Not at all,” Ellire responded. “Come have a seat.”

“Great!” Naka immediately plopped down between the two benders with very little concern for how much space was actually available. “So. Um. Do you mind if I talk to you guys about something serious for a minute?”

“You, serious?” Ellire raised an eyebrow.

“Of course, shoot,” Rei said over her companion.

Naka took a deep breath before continuing. “Well. It’s just that I’ve been thinking alot lately, and maybe this whole kidnapping thing isn’t such a good idea after all.”

“You’ve been talking to the earthbender, haven’t you?”

“What? No! Okay, maybe a little bit, but Jairin has a point. I know you’re always saying how we’re not bad people, we just do what we have to now and it’ll pay off in the end, but what if it never ends? What if we keep making the wrong decisions again and again? Forever?”

Ellire didn’t answer at first, instead staring into the flickering campfire. “So what if we’re the villains in this story?” she finally said. “I’ve only ever done what I thought was best. For both of us.”

Naka frowned. “I’m not saying I want to be a hero or anything, but I’m not proud of what we’ve become. It even scares me a little.”

“Look, I don’t have time for your little moral crisis, alright? If you want out then that’s on you!” the firebender snapped.

“Don’t go putting words in my mouth!”

“Woah woah woah, everybody just calm down for a minute!” Rei interjected, shoving her way in between the two in order to referee the conversation. “You two are like, the closest friends I’ve ever seen! You can’t start fighting now!”

“I’m going to bed,” Ellire announced suddenly, standing up. She gestured to the campfire in front of her. “I trust you two know how to put this out when you’re done?”

-x-

Chief Kumi and her men had also set up their camp as the sun disappeared over the horizon, although their tents took considerably longer to pitch. Aeron was just settling down on a mat on the floor of Blaise’s tent when the firebender came storming in, her whole body hot and glowing with rage.

“I can’t stand that infernal woman!” Blaise was saying.

Aeron lifted his tiny head. Kumi giving you a rough time?

“Why does she even bother having me around if she won’t listen to a single thing I have to say? And on top of that, she even has to go and embarrass me in front of her soldiers! As if I didn’t know that they talk about me behind my back already!” Throwing herself down onto the floor, Blaise immediately began shoving some of her belongings into a bag.

Wait, what are you doing now?

“Y’know, maybe I’ve been looking at this whole thing wrong,” Blaise explained without looking up from her task. “Ellire and Naka couldn’t possibly have known that I was going to get caught right after they left me. And us firebenders, we have a bad habit of getting hot headed, so what if Ellire was just acting in the heat of the moment and regretted it right away, but by then it was too late to do anything but flee?”

Enough with the puns. What is your point?

Blaise stood up and slung the back over her shoulder. “Even though Ellire and I didn’t get along 100% of the time, Kumi likes me even less than that, and quite frankly, I deserve better than this. I don’t want to go back to being alone, but maybe if I sneak out and get enough of a head start I can find Ellire and Naka in time to warn them of what’s coming, being the wonderful double agent that I am, and then they’ll have to take me back!”

Aeron made a low growling noise in the back of his throat. They abandoned you out on the streets! Who’s to say they’ll treat you any better a second time around?

“Naka cried the night Ellire and I fought. I have to at least try to fix things.” Blaise turned to leave but was intercepted by Aeron, who flew into the air and skid to a halt in front of her.

Coward! he hissed. We talked about this. Just because you’re mad at Kumi doesn’t mean that her enemy is any less of yours. Also continuing to work with her is the only way to ensure your freedom!

“I’m sure Old Ironfire has half a mind to throw me in prison regardless of my assistance,” Blaise retorted.

And what about getting revenge on Ellire for what she did to you? If you just come crawling back all that planning will have been for nothing!

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say YOU were the one who wanted to see her dead!” There was a long silence before Blaise sank down to one knee to be more level with Aeron. “Wait a minute… You do, don’t you? Has this really been about you the whole time?”

Aeron turned away. I dislike keeping things from you, but I feared that the truth in its entirety would cloud your judgement.

Blaise narrowed her eyes. “What do you know that I don’t?”

Tell me, Blaise… How familiar are you with dragon prophecies?

-x-

Ellire fell to her knees. “I told you, I can’t!” she whimpered.

“Not with that attitude you won’t. Now get up and try again.”

Not wanting to let Sol down, Ellire struggled to pick herself up again. She positioned her stance just as the spirit had instructed and held her arms out in front of her. A large white moon was shining overhead, casting a long shadow from a naked tree a little ways away. Sol watched intently as the firebender focused in on the shadow. After several seconds of nothing happening her legs began to quiver.

“You are growing frustrated,” Sol commented. “Good. Use that anger to draw out the power you are afraid to tap into.”

Ellire stomped one foot hard against the ground, sending a jolt of energy shooting through her body. Suddenly, as if being lifted by a set of invisible hands, the tree’s shadow peeled itself away from the dirt below. It hovered in the air for a moment like a thin black curtain. Finally Ellire dropped her arms, panting, and the shadow melted back into the ground. She looked to Sol, who gave her a satisfied nod.

Distracted by a throbbing in her head, Ellire didn’t even notice the thin stream of blood that had trickled down from the bottom of her nose.

-x- 

“So what you’re trying to say is… Ellire’s gonna be possessed by some kind of demon and break the barrier between the spirit world and ours, killing hundreds of benders and nonbenders alike in the process?”

Well, evil spirit, but yes.

Blaise slouched her back where she was sitting. “And that would explain why you want me to kill her so bad.”

Aeron nodded. It is the only way to prevent the prophecy.

“And you’re absolutely sure that there’s nothing we could do to save her? You know, try talking to her about it?”

The process has already begun. Sol will not be stopped unless his vessel is destroyed.

Blaise rubbed at the back of her neck in thought. “But, you said Sol had tried to pull something like this once before, and that the girl wasn’t strong enough to contain his power. How do you know he’ll ever stop?”

He won’t, Aeron admitted. Sol is a dark spirit that can be slowed but never stopped. While taking Ellire out of the picture won’t keep him from having another in another hundred years or so when he is twice as strong, but it will guarantee the safety of this generation.

“So kind of like putting tape on your favorite glasses instead of just buying a new pair?”

Something like that.

“I don’t know,” Blaise sighed. “It seems like an awfully tough judgement call, killing an old friend because of something she hasn’t done yet.”

You were ready to do the same just this morning. Why should the truth change that?

Blaise took a moment to chew on her lip before answering. “Tell you what: I’ll stick around until we find her. If Kumi has Ellire locked up, then maybe she’ll be useless to this Sol fellow.”

And what if you’re too late, and Sol has already taken control of Ellire?

“Then I’ll do what I have to. But unless there’s absolutely no other way, I won’t fight her.”

Then you are a fool. Innocent blood will be on your hands.

Ignoring the green dragon, Blaise put out the nearby lantern a wave of her hand and the tent went dark. “Goodnight, Aeron.”

-x-

For the first time in ages Ellire was up bright and early the next morning. Still thinking about what happened during the night, she had gone down to the creek was was trying, without much success, to recreate the incident with the shadow from a small pile of rocks she’d stacked up.

“Working on a new routine for your magic show?”

Ellire jumped at Rei’s voice. “Yes!” she exclaimed, quickly trying to cover up the fact that she’d successfully been startled. “Something like that. Choreographing for Naka is difficult since I can’t actually airbend, so if it looked funny, that’s probably why.”

“Well I thought it looked alright,” Rei said. “Hey, did you hit yourself this morning or something? Your nose is bleeding.”

Ellire pressed her fingers against her face and inspected the sticky red that came off on them. “That’s weird,” she muttered, half to herself. “Guess I must’ve.”

“Hold still, I think I’ve got just the thing!” Rei summoned forth a blog of water from the and brought it close to Ellire’s face, who took a step back. “What? Don’t you trust me?”

“To be perfectly fair, it hasn’t even been 48 hours since the last time you attacked me.”

“Technicalities. Now stop moving.”

Ellire did so and allowed the floating water blob to press lightly against her nose. It immediately began glowing a fluorescent light blue color. After about a minute Rei threw it back into the creek with a splash.

“How’s that feel?” the waterbender asked.

Because Ellire had felt no pain before she hardly noticed a difference, but upon further investigation realized that her nose was no longer bleeding and whatever had been there had now magically vanished. “Impressive,” she finally said.

“And that’s not I can do,” Rei went on, “which is why I think you should let me be in A Touch of Magic! Y’know, since I’ll probably be sticking around for some undefined amount of time.”

Ellire made a face. “You want to be in our show?”

“Would you like a demonstration?” Rei drew a bit of water up from the creek again and began attempting to show off with it, swinging the element around like some kind of lasso or jump rope.

“Actually a while back Naka and I were talking about getting someone to start the show, like introducing us before we go on.”

Without bothering to drop the water back into the creek, Rei just let it hit the ground, her mouth slightly ajar. “What? Are you kidding me? This is pure talent you’d be putting to waste! Just think about it!”

Ignoring her, Ellire made her way back to where they’d parked the wagon for the night and found Naka sitting in front of a small campfire. A flat piece of wood was set up over it and holding several eggs that were cooking. Next to Naka sat Jairin, her hands and feet still tied up, but eating a fried egg with very little difficulty because of it.

“What in the heck do you think you’re doing?” Ellire demanded.

Naka looked up and smiled guiltily. “Fraternizing with the enemy? But on the upside, I found some lizard bird eggs and made breakfast! Probably would’ve gone better on toast, but seeing as we never got around to grocery shopping…”

“How’d you even start the fire back up without Ellire’s help?” Rei questioned.

“The embers were still warm from last night. Turns out a little fresh oxygen was all they needed to wake up again!”

“Well aren’t you clever.”

Ellire folded her arms with a scowl. “Don’t change the subject, missy! The plan was to kidnap the kid and hold her for ransom, not treat her like some kind of pet!”

“It’s not hurting anybody,” Naka said. “Well. In theory.”

“If it helps, I never said I wanted to leave your stupid cart,” Jairin finally chimed in.

“Look, why don’t you stop being so stressed out about everything all the time and eat? You get even worse when you’re hungry.” Naka used her airbending to lift the two remaining eggs from the fire and float them onto a couple plates that she had pulled out of their mesh kit. Holding one in each hand, she held them out to Rei and Ellire, who eventually did accept the plates.

“Mm, this is quite good,” Rei muttered upon taking a bite without using any silverware.

“Yeah, well, I’ve had a bit of practice,” Naka said. “Ellire isn’t allowed to cook for us because more often than not she burns all of our meals.”

“Naka!” the firebender shot back angrily.

“What? It’s the truth, isn’t it?”

Ellire took a deep breath. “Never mind. Be ready to leave in another hour or so. The sooner we get back to civilization, the sooner our babysitting shift ends and we earn enough to treat ourselves properly.” Ellire took one last bite of her meal and set the plate down before walking over to the wagon and fussing about with Dandan’s reigns.

“She’s not always this bad,” Naka promised Rei. “She’s just been under a lot of stress lately.”

“Is this about what happened with Blaise?”

“No, of course not! Well, partly, I suppose. But that happened months ago and… Wait, who told you about that?”

The waterbender gestured over to the side of the wagon, where Blaise’s name had been burnt out. “Wasn’t hard to guess.”

Jairin let out an exasperated sigh. “So am I just invisible, or…?”

“Quiet, you.”

-x-

The group was on the road again shortly. The general consensus was that all was going well when Naka suddenly spotted something in the distance and stood up, pointing. “Look over there!” the airbender exclaimed. “It’s another person!”

“Sit down before you fall out and we leave you behind!” Ellire threatened, pulling Naka back down by the back of her shirt.

“Looks like he’s having road trouble,” Rei commented from atop one of Dandan’s antlers.

Sure enough, they were approaching an elderly man at the side of the road. Next to him and partially blocking their path was an overturned wagon, similar to their own, and a rhinoceros horse. The man waved out his arms desperately as the girls got closer and stopped several feet in front of him.

“What’s the matter, sir?”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Ellire groaned half to herself. “Now we’re doing favors for strangers, too?”

“It’s my wagon,” the man explained. “I hit a bump in the road and it snapped, and now I’m stranded here!”

“Well I don’t know what you expect us to do about it,” Rei admitted. “I mean, I suppose we can give you and your… friend here a lift, but you’d have to leave the cart behind. Also I’m pretty sure you’d have just as much luck riding the rhinoceros horse instead.”

The large beast snorted in response.

The three benders dismounted and Ellire crouched down to take a look at the damage. “Are you sure it’s snapped? Because all the wheels look just fine to--”

She was cut short, however, by the sound of a handful of men jumping out from where they’d been hiding behind the trees. Wearing dark greens with their faces hidden behind a mask, the group made a circle surrounding the girls. Ellire straightened her back with narrowed eyes. The older man pulled out a scrap of cloth from his back pocket and tied it around his head, revealing an identical mask.

“Well, well,” Rei smirked. “Unfortunate as this is, you have to admit that it’s quite an interesting turn of events, given the circumstances.”

“Take out whatever coins and jewelry you have on you and bring them here,” the man instructed.

“We haven’t any wealth on us,” Ellire said.

“Don’t be difficult. Although my men don’t look armed, I assure you, each and every one of them is tough as rocks. Literally.”

Ellire hummed. “Playing all the same cards, now, are we? Personally, I prefer to combine talents. Adds a bit of variety. Plus, less blind spots.”

The gentleman squinted. “I don’t think you quite understand the situation you’ve stumbled into. You’re being robbed by wanted men!”

“No, sir. YOU are being robbed by a wanted WOMAN.”

He frowned, and Ellire pointed towards Naka, who had tiptoed outside of the ring of robbers and was currently helping herself to as much stolen jewelry from the inside of the highwayman’s overturned wagon as she could fit around her wrists and neck. Naka looked up slowly, gave a guilty smile, and waved. “Nothing to see here!” she exclaimed. “Go back to threatening each other! I’m doing fine!”

The old man let out an angry grunt and thrust his foot down. Almost immediately the earth began to tremble, and Ellire reacted by planting her feet firmly into the ground and launching a jet of fire in the man’s direction. He then ducked, the plume of hot ember roaring over him, and came charging towards her. Fists now encased in gloves of solid rock, the man threw a punch at Ellire, hitting her square in the chest, knocking her back. Ellire recovered with a quick backwards summersault and sprung to her feet, only to see two fist sized boulders hurtling through the air towards her. Ellire expertly dodged one rock but the other violently slammed into her shoulder. She cried out in pain as the momentum flung her to the ground.

The man snorted in triumph as a dust cloud formed where Ellire had fallen. But as the dust began to rise it obscured the man's vision to the point of which he could not see Ellire any longer. Only when it was too late did he notice the streaks of orange and red that glowed in the gritty cloud.Flames shot out at him viciously, searing his chest, and the man let out a surprised cry as they carried him back a couple of feet.

Ellire emerged from the cloud patting off the dirt that had clung to her already dirtied clothes. She smiled and returned the man's triumphant snort all the while mentally preparing herself for a counter-attack.

Meanwhile, the rest of the gang had turned on Naka and Rae. Fighting with their backs pressed together, the two benders tooks turns whipping at the highwaymen who came too close with their respective lassos of water and air. The swarm of bandits prodded Naka and Rae’s tight formation as if looking for a weak point in their form to exploit in their own attacks. And every time the raiders attacked the became harder and harder to fight off.

“There’s too many of them!” Naka called back to Ellire.

Ellire clenched her jaw and tried to keep from panting. “You don’t think I know that!”

Ellire continued to trade blows with the man until Ellire summoned her anger. She concentrated on the pain in her chest and shoulder from the hits she had taken moments earlier and sent a wave of flame hurtling at the man. The man crouched and sent up a wall of rock to shield himself from the torrent of fire.

Suddenly Ellire’s opponent spun around and started running away from the brawl. Her confidence boosting, Ellire chased after him. The man then leapt onto his rhinoceros horse and began charging back the way he’d come and straight towards Ellire. Ellire’s eyes widened and she let out a yelp, switching to defensive in an attempt to outrun the creature that was quickly gaining on her. When it was just about upon her Ellire hit the ground.

To her surprise, Naka had come to her aid from atop Dandan, who rammed his antlers into the rhinoceros horse’s side, gouging the rhinoceros horses thick hide and sending the man and his mount toppling over. The ground shook harder than before. Ellire scanned her eyes across the battlefield, noticing that their cart had been turned on its side. The bender’s attention was drawn in again to her current situation when she felt a tug at her arm.

“Ouch!” Rae squealed, recoiling.

“Sorry,” Ellire apologized and picked herself up. “I have a bad habit of overheating when I’m stressed out.”

“So I noticed. But never mind that, we’ve got to get out of here! We’re outnumbered!”

Just as the waterbender said this, three of the highwaymen approached them. The group sent a large crack tearing through the ground between where they stood. Upon hitting the trunk of a tree, the plant made a snapping sound and came crashing down. Rae and Ellire dove out of the way just in time, narrowly avoiding its collapsing branches.

“Follow me!” Naka called out, dashing past them on Dandan’s back. “I’ve got an idea!”

“Famous last words,” Ellire grumbled. She struggled to keep up with her friend nonetheless. Within a couple seconds the girls came upon the edge of a steep canyon and skid to a halt. “Alright, what’s your brilliant plan?” the firebender demanded.

“I can fly us across,” explained Naka. “Not all at once, of course, but if we hurry maybe…”

Rae’s face fell dramatically. “We’re all gonna die.”

“You two go,” Ellire instructed.

“But what about you?”

“I have to get something from the wagon, and I need to borrow Dandan to get it.”

Rae rolled her eyes. “Forget the stupid cart! You’re not going to be able to get it away from them at this rate anyway!”

“Allow me to rephrase: I have to get someone from the wagon,” sighed Ellire. Naka and Rae exchanged horrified looks of realization. Without waiting for a response, Ellire traded places with Naka on Dandan and took off away from the ledge.

“C’mon,” Naka urged, gesturing for Rae to climb onto her back.

“Alright, I’m going to trust you, but so help me--”

-x-

Ellire reached the overturned wagon just in time to see a couple of men looting through it. Feeling anger bubble up inside of her, Ellire threw both of her arms forward. Upon doing so a dark shadow expanded from underneath the wagon, giving the ground below a quicksand-like consistency, so that the strangers sunk to their knees, screaming out in surprise and quite possibly pain. Ellire came closer and caught sight of Jairin, who was still inside of the wagon but pinned beneath bits of the folded stage.

While saying nothing, Ellire hopped off of Dandan and grabbed at the rope around Jairin’s wrists. When she let go it snapped apart, its ends now blackened. Dandan seemed to realize what was going on and used his antler to hoist the stage off of Jairin. The earthbender had just crawled out when the ground shook once more. The girls both looked to see that the earthbenders had also freed themselves.

“Time to go,” Ellire breathed, helping Jairin onto Dandan behind her.

Multiple large cracks had begun to form in the shaking earth, breaking apart the ground below as they hurried to get further and further away from them. As Ellire and Jairin got closer and closer to the canyon, however, the attack became even stronger. The two of them could just about feel the cliff crumbling beneath them. Dandan inched back a couple of steps to avoid the chunks of rock that were piecing off towards the very edge.

“Hold onto my waist,” instructed Ellire.

Jairin made a face at this. “Pardon?”

“Just do it!” Ellire shouted back, tightening her grip on Dandan’s antlers. Jairin did so reluctantly, and Ellire took Dandan back another foot or so before dashing forward again. Just as they reached the end the giant jackalope lept into the air and Jairin shrieked, clinging on tighter. Mere seconds after they had taken off of the ground a good portion of the cliff collapsed, sending an avalanche of rock tumbling down into the canyon below.

Dandan kept the benders suspended in the air for several seconds before hitting the ground and rolling onto his side. Jairin and Ellire flopped off of his furry back. Ellire, not waiting to see if Jairin was willing enough to use her earthbending to redirect the onslaught of boulders, immediately formed a dome of flames over the three of them. Her arms shook, struggling to force the barrier to hold against the avalanche. Several golf ball sized rocks managed to slip through, smashing into the ground dangerously close to the three of them.

The fire shield was starting to shrink slightly and even more rocks and pebbles broke through it. Clouds of dust and debris had begun to fill the air, stinging at Ellire’s eyes. Ellire took a deep breath and pushed out the flames again. This time, however, a blackish layer of something seemed to line up against the innermost part of the curved wall, supporting it. Now nothing seemed to be getting through and, after waiting another minute or so for the sound of falling rocks to stop, Ellire released her hold on the barrier and plopped down onto her back with big, uneven breaths.

The dust cleared away slowly, revealing a clear ring around the trio where the majority of the the avalanche was unable to reach. Jairin lifted her head from where she’d been curled up in a tight ball next to Dandan. “Whelp. That was surprisingly badass,” she said, blinking in surprise. Ellire didn’t reply, and Jairin tried again: “By the way thanks for… you know, what you did back there. Honestly, I didn’t think you guys would come back for me.”

“I’m not very good at doing the right thing,” Ellire managed, “but at least I think that was it?”

Jairin smiled. “I suppose so. It’s a real shame about your wagon, though.”

Ellire shut her eyes and frowned. “Too soon,” she moaned.

“Do you think they’re gone?” Jairin asked, standing up and staring up at where they’d just come from.

“I suppose they think we’re gone,” Ellire shrugged. She sat upright and cracked her knuckles out in front of her. Only then did she notice the little rings of half-dried blood that had formed around each nail. Not wanting Jairin to see for some reason, Ellire pulled her hands back in and began wiping them off with the bottom of her skirt.

-x-

“Can you see? Are they alright? Did they make it out?” Naka squeaked, wrapping herself tightly around Rei’s arm.

“Yes, look, they’re fine!” Rei snapped, using her head to nod towards the canyon below and her free arm to try and pry the airbender off of her.

“Oh thank god!” Naka exclaimed. She dropped to the ground, kneeling at the edge of the cliff and waved down at her friend. “Ellire! Ellire, over here!” she yelled.

“Naka!” the tiny firebender called back to her. “Do you see the earthbenders that attacked us on the other side?”

Naka looked up and scanned the horizon for the highwaymen, but they seemed to have all vanished. “Nope!” she yelled through cupped hands. “Hey, should I float down there and get you guys?”

“That would be much appreciated! But, what about Dandan? How would you manage to carry him?”

Naka’s face fell when she put two and two together. “Yeah, I can see how that would be problematic,” Rei said. “Too bad he’s not a flying jackalope or something.”

“Well, I can get you two up easily enough, but what should we do about Dandan? We can’t leave him!” shouted Naka.

“Hold tight!” Rei yelled from over Naka’s shoulder. “We’ll try and get help!”

-x-

“So that’s it, then?” Jairin asked. “We’re trapped here?”

“Just for the time being. Unless, of course, you’ve suddenly remembered that you know how to make a giant staircase out of the wall?”

Jairin bit at her lower lip. “Um. I don’t think I’ve had enough training to pull of something like that. I mean, throwing around rocks that are light enough to carry myself or shooting a single spike up from the ground, sure. But a staircase of that size… I mean, maybe if I kept at it for a couple days, and took a break every couple of steps…”

“You could’ve just said ‘no’,” Ellire sighed. “In any case, if we’re going to be spending a bit of time here together, can I have your word that you’re not going to try and kill me again?”

Jairin chuckled. “Well. You robbed my house, then ended up losing the closest thing you guys have to an actual home… I don’t know. I guess we’re pretty even.”

“In that case, I suppose after we get out of this mess you’re free to head on home,” Ellire announced.

“What?” Jairin looked much more alarmed by this that Ellire would’ve anticipated. “You can’t send me back now! We’ve already bonded! Plus, everything’s so much more exciting out here! Action, adventure - do you realize how bored I was back there? And this way, I get to travel around with real professional benders! How cool is that!”

Ellire folded her arms. “Are you seriously suggesting that all this revenge business was just a big ploy to get out of the house?” Jairin smiled at Ellire guiltily. Ellire glared back. “You’re a little jerk. You know that, right?”

“So I’ve been told. Is that a yes?”

“Well it’s true. And do I have much of a choice?”

“Not really. No.”

“Figures.”


	5. The Avatar

The majority of what was left of the day had passed and Rei and Naka were still experiencing little success in their search for help. The two acquaintances had spent the past couple of hours wandering down the only path they managed to find. It was a thin dirt trail that cut between two patches of half-dead grass that stretched out in every direction that Naka had deemed 'The Lonely Road'.

"I spy with my little eye... something..." Naka twitched her nose and glanced around the area. "Something blue!"

Rei sighed. "Might it be the sky?"

"Right again! Damn, you're good at this game!"

"Well, it was that or an article of my clothing," pointed out the waterbender. "After twenty-something rounds I would've assumed you'd figure out that there isn't much to pick from and moved onto a new game."

"Nope!" Naka beamed. "Your turn, Rei!"

"Fine. I spy with my little eye..." They were approaching to top of a small incline on their path when Rei looked ahead, spotting a barely visible building in the distance. Behind it the ground looked greener, as if whatever was growing there was being cared for. "Farm!" Rei exclaimed with newfound energy.

Naka frowned. "Now that's not how you're supposed to play. At least give me a chance to guess first!"

Rei slapped at the airbender's arm. "No, look! It's a farm!"

Naka gasped, finally comprehending. "Oh! Maybe there's someone that can help us there!"

"I certainly hope so. Or at least someone who's willing enough to send us back the way we came with provisions of some sort." Rei's stomach made a rumbling noise as if on cue.

"Well what are you waiting for?" squealed Naka. "C'mon!" With that the airbender went bounding down the hill, hardly waiting for her companion to catch up.

-x-

Unfortunately, seeing that little farm off in the distance did by no means make it fairly close to the two benders. Naka and Rei had run out of breath and had to stop sprinting long before reaching the end point in what Naka had now renamed The Road That Never Stops Going in a Straight Line. Upon arrival the sun was already setting, the sky above them now a mix of gold and pink.

“I’ll knock,” Rei offered as they approached the farmhouse. Naka nodded.

The waterbender didn’t get very far, however, before unknowingly stepping over a nearly invisible trip wire. The thing snapped and with a shriek Naka and Rei were both flung into the air by some kind of fishing net strung to the farm’s front porch.

“Who dares trespass on Avatar property!” a booming voice rang out.

The trapped girls exchanged helpless and confused looks before Naka spoke up: “Um, yes, we we would like to request a visitor’s pass? Also, what do you mean by ‘Avatar property’?”

“Well, I own this farm. And I’m the Avatar. Therefore it’s Avatar property!” The speaker stepped out from behind the side of the house, revealing herself. She had dark skin like someone from the Water Tribes, yet her limbs and forehead were lined with light blue arrow tattoos that were most often seen on air temple monks. The stranger looked older than the both of them but was significantly small in build. She wore mostly oranges and yellows in her hand clutched some kind of homemade megaphone.

Rei remained unimpressed. “You sure don’t look like an Avatar.”

“Oh?” the other girl sang. “Are you an expert on Avatars now? In that case tell me, what exactly are we supposed to look like, hm?”

“I thought that Roku fellow was still the Avatar?” Naka asked aloud. “I mean, I don’t think Elle and I have been out of the Fire Nation all that long. Things couldn’t have changed that quickly, and even if Avatar Roku did die, surely we’d find out in some way or another?”

“You’re forgetting that even when an Avatar does die they reincarnate. It’s not like their powers just hop along onto the next most suitable person. That being said, assuming Roku did bite the dust, this chick would have to be a newborn for me to even consider her being the new Avatar!”

“Unless Roku’s actually been dead of years and years and it’ll all a part of some big Fire Nation conspiracy,” Naka pointed out.

Rei glared back at her companion. “Are you just arguing with me for the sake of arguing, or…?”

“Hey! Stop ignoring me and start paying attention to me!” the third girl called out from below them.

“Why don’t you cut us down from here, then we’ll talk,” Rei answered calmly.

“Only if you admit that I’m the one and only Avatar first.”

Naka gave Rei a hopeful look, who shook her head decisively. “Absolutely not.”

The girl shrugged. “Alright. Have fun up there! I hear it’s pretty cold at night in these parts!”

“Wait!” both benders exclaimed at the same time.

“Alright, I’m sorry!” Rei said quickly. “You can be the Avatar if you want to, just for the love of all that is good, get us down from here!”

The girl made a show of pretending to take the time to decide whether or not she wanted to release her prisoners. When she was ready she then kicked off a pair of little blue shoes and began scrambling up the side of the porch as if she were an oversized winged-lemur who wasn’t afraid of dirtying her tights. In a matter of seconds the girl had untied the knot holding the net together. It flung apart, spilling its contents onto the hard floor with as little grace as possible. Looking quite with herself, the girl leapt down from the awning into flip. Landing on her feet again, she held out a hand in greeting. “Avatar Myhja, at your service!”

After having picked herself up and dusted off, Rei glanced down at Myhja’s outstretched hand distrustfully. When she didn’t taken it Myhja instead shook her own hand, making the gesture even more awkward than it had already been.

“Hey, is it true that Avatars like helping people?” asked Naka.

Myhja snorted. “Helping people? Are you kidding? Helping people is what Avatars do best! Also baking. I’ve been told I make a mean chocolate moose lion.”

"You hear that, Rei?" Naka elbowed the waterbender with a smug expression. "Myhja says she's great at helping people."

"Yeah, yeah," Rei swatted her away. "Alright, Avatar. I don't suppose you'd mind lending the two of us a hand, would you? Some friends of ours are currently trapped at the bottom of this canyon a ways back, and any help getting them out would be greatly appreciated."

Myhja rubbed the bottom of her chin thoughtfully. "I'm listening."

"I mean, we don't have much in means of payment at the moment, but I'm sure we can work out--"

"Bedtime stories!" Myhja decided happily. "I love bedtime stories. Especially that one about the young airbender who got trapped in a ball of ice fore one hundred years!"

Rei looked to Naka expectantly. Naka shrugged and shook her head in response.

"What are y'all standing around for? The cow deer are kept out back!" Myhja darted around the side of the farmhouse, signaling Rei and Naka to follow.

"Cow deer...?"

"You're in a hurry, no?"

"Um. Right. Yes, of course."

-x-

Myhja made a good call: the cow deer the two girls had borrowed from her cut their journey back to the canyon in more than half. Upon reaching their final destination, The group dismounted and Rei and Naka looked to their new friend expectantly. To their annoyance, Myhja simple smiled back and gave a little wave.

"Well?" Rei demanded. "What's the plan, Avatar?"

Myhja stared up at the night sky for a moment as if concentrating really hard on something. "The stars aren't in alignment," she finally announced with a decisive nod.

Rei's eye twitched. "Wh--what's that supposed to mean! Listen, you twit, can you do it or not?"

"Nope! Avatar State cannot be accessed given the current wind conditions. Too much glare. Please try turning it off and on again and then ask again tomorrow, thank you and have a nice day!"

It took all of Rei's limited self-control to keep from smacking that obnoxious grin off of Myhja's face. "Are you trying to tell me," the waterbender seethed slowly, "that we came all this way twice for ABSOLUTELY NOTHING? Are you even a real bender, much less the Avatar?!"

Myhja looked offended. "Of course I know how to bend - watch this!" And then, instead of bending an element, Myhja flung herself into a long stream of cartwheels.

Rei pinched at the bridge of her nose."I don't know how to tell you this, Naka, but... not only were we unable to get help, we also allowed a crazy person to trick us into thinking she's the Avatar!" The girl met Naka's eyes then, noticing that they had begun to water. "Hey. You're not going to cry, are you?"

"I can't help it," whimpered Naka. "We wasted so much time already and it's all for nothing! How are we supposed to get the others out now?"

Rei folded her arms in thought. "Well. We could try walking alongside the edge and have Ellire, Naka, and Dandan keep up from below. See if the canyon opens up eventually as our Plan B." With a judge mental glance towards Myhja, who was still rolling around in the dirt, she added: "I suggest we throw that one in first, however."

-x-

"What do you suppose is going on up there?" Jairin asked.

Ellire shrugged. "I don't know, but I wouldn't hold your breath for it being that they've found a way to hoist all of us up."

"If we just let Dandan go free this wouldn't be an issue," Jairin muttered.

"No!" Ellire shot back, almost making Jairin jump in alarm. "I've already lost enough today. I'm not going to abandon a friend as well, animal or otherwise."

The earthbender rolled her eyes. "Yeah. Right. Just like you didn't with Blaise. Or am I not supposed to know about that?"

"I need time to think," Ellire said, pretending not to be hurt by Jairin's speculation. The firebender traveled several feet to her left and stood perfectly still. An idea occurred to her then, and although she had no idea whether it would work or not, decided to give it a shot anyway. Ellire squeezed her eyes shut. "Sol," she whispered. "Sol, can you hear me?" The firebender was answered with an eerie silence. She had nearly given up when a warm gust of air came whistling through the canyon. Ellire opened her eyes but saw that nothing had changed. "Sol? Is that you?" she said again.

The student summons the teacher, a baritone voice purred into her ear. Ellire lifted her head slightly. What an unusual treat...

"Well, I am taking private lessons with a powerful spirit," Ellire pointed out smugly. "I figured it'd be foolish to not at least try taking advantage of that."

You're a fool for having the nerve to call upon a spirit in the first place, and I the greater fool for humoring you.

Ellire smirked. "Yeah, yeah. Why don't you quit pretending you didn't come because you wanted to and skip to the part where you tell me how we can get out of this mess. Preferably before the earthbender starts wondering why I'm talking to myself."

Sol hesitated before answering: She's right; without your jackalope there would be no predicament to resolve.

"Not an option. Can I somehow shadowbend my way out of this or not?"

Not on your own... Not yet, anyway.

"How do you mean, 'on my own'?"

There is one way. Were I to temporarily possess your body. I could provide you with enough power to make the path that would take your earthbender days to create.

Ellire thought carefully about Sol's proposal. There had to be some kind of catch, if he didn't want to suggest it in the first place. "But...?"

But it would be dangerous, explained the dark spirit. The more you shadowbend in the human world, the stronger your vessel becomes. But you are not yet ready. If I did try fusing with you at such an early stage, I cannot promise that you will be able to come back.

"I'm ready," Ellire pressed. "I've been practicing shadowbending quite a bit; whenever the others aren't looking. It's not that impressive in my down time, but during battles--"

It is common for benders' powers to channel directly from their emotions. Like many great masters of fire, are strongest during times of fear, anger, and frustration. Are you sure that you wish to go through with this? Ellire have a decisive nod. Very well. Close your eyes and try as much as possible to clear your mind.

-x-

Jairin was beginning to grow suspicious of the amount of time Ellire was taking to ‘think’. Officially bored of waiting around by herself, the young girl finally decided to confront the firebender and figure out just what the new plan entailed.

“Hey, Ellire?” she called out, approaching the other bender. But Ellire didn’t respond. Jairin took another couple of steps forward and tapped Ellire on the shoulder. Ellire’s entire body then whipped around to face Jairin, but there was something off about her - and not just the fact that her eyes were now glowing a bright and fluorescent purple. “Y-your face!” Jairin managed, stumbling backwards. “You might want to, ah… get that looked at by a medical professional or something. Just saying.”

Ellire didn’t answer. Instead the firebender pushed past Jairin and turned to face the canyon’s wall. Ellire then lifted both of her arms into the air. Suddenly a dark shadow stretched out from underneath her, expanding until it enveloped the majority of the towering cliff. The ground began to shake, but instead of breaking off in chunks like what had happened with the avalanche earlier, the dark rocks started to crumble and dissolve, as if a layer of acid had been poured over them.

From atop the cliff Rei and Naka’s tiny, surprised figures could be seen backing away from the danger zone. After about a full minute of this what had once been a rocky wall had flattened into a blackened, charred ramp. The trembling and crumbling of burnt rocks slowly came to a halt, at which point the bright glow faded from Ellire’s eyes. The girl stood perfectly still for a moment as the others looked on with held breaths, and then she keeled over backwards, as if having fainted. Jairin looked on with slight worry but otherwise made little to no effort to help Ellire back up again or even see if she was alright. Luckily, Naka had come in Jairin’s place, sprinting down the rocky staircase Ellire had just made.

“Elle!” Naka kept wailing. “Elle, are you okay? Elle!” The airbender swooped down to her knees beside Ellire and held the palm of her hand just above her friend’s mouth. Clenching her jaw in concentration, Naka raised and lowered her hand slowing, pumping small breaths in and out of Ellire as Jairin watched from a foot or so away with interest. Mere seconds later the firebender’s eyes shot open and Ellire scrambled upright.

“Fine!” she gasped. “I’m fine! I… I’ll be fine.”

Naka let out a sigh of relief, but an angry look flashed across her face just as suddenly. “You were most certainly not fine! What were you thinking, overexerting yourself like that? What if wasn’t able to wake you up again? Huh?”

“Well you were,” argued Ellire. “‘Sides, that did the trick, didn’t it? So it was worth the tiny risk in the end.”

“Yeah, well. Even so. Don’t you dare try and pass a little stunt like that off as ‘fine.’”

After reached the bottom of the slope with their cow deer in tow, Rei and Myhja were just catching up with the others when Myhja took one look at Ellire bust up laughing. “Fine? It was more than fine - it was brilliant! Kitty finally decided to show its claws!”

Rei furrowed her brows. “Kitty? Did you just… compare Ellire to an owl cat?”

Ellire frowned. “Um. Who is this, exactly?”

“Oh, right, of course! Where are my manners? Ellire, Jairin, meet Myhja. She told us she was the Avatar but evidently isn’t. She also said she was going to help us out and that didn’t exactly pan out either, but I suppose she did let us borrow a couple cow deer, so that shaved a bit of time on the trip back at least?”

Ellire folded her arms. "Okay, fair enough. So what's the plan now? I hate to be a downer, but the thought of camping out her without any proper supplies is to exactly appealing."

"You guys can come stay at the farm," Myhja offered. "Pasha loves guests."

"Who?"

"I'm okay with this!" Naka said quickly. "We've already got our own cow deer, so Ellire, would you and Jairin mind riding Dandan?"

"Way ahead of you," the earthbender sang, hopping onto the giant jackalope from a stone stepping stool she'd created. "Also: dibs on the front seat."

Ellire climbed up onto Dandan using the jackalope's antlers and slipped in front of Jairin. "Nice try. My animal, I call shotgun."

"I don't get it," Rei commented as she mounted her cow deer again. "Wasn't that kid our hostage up until a couple hours earlier?"

"That she was," answered Naka, following suit.

"But now we're all buddy-buddy?"

"Evidently."

Rei shook her head. "Y'all are a strange crowd, I'll give you that much."

"Ellire doesn't have a history of playing nice with others," Naka explained cooly as she passed in front of Rei on their way back uphill. "Could be a good bonding experience."

"Whatever you say..."

"Hey, where exactly are we headed?" Ellire asked, interrupting Naka and Rei's conversation.

Myhja was already a good five feet or so ahead of the group. "You follow Myhja!" she called back. "She knows the way!"

"Not Myhja - the PATH. Follow the path for just under an hour and we'll be there."

-x-

The five girls didn't talk for most of the trek. Finally Jairin worked up the nerve to confront Ellire about what happened earlier. "Hey," she began. Jairin tapped at Ellire's shoulder. The firebender tilted her head slightly. "Um. So what exactly was that back there? I mean, what you need. I've never seen... firebending quite like that before."

"I can't imagine you've seen a whole lot of firebending going on, having spent all your life in the Earth Kingdom."

Jairin squinted. "That's not what I mean and you know it. Your eyes - they got all... all glow-y, like the Avatar state. Or at least what I've read about it in school. In any case, you're not Avatar Roku. So what is it, then?"

Ellire put her eyes back on the road ahead. "I really don't know what you're referring to."

"Are you some kind of spirit trapped in the human world? Oh, or maybe a government experiment, and that's why you and Naka fled from the Fire Nation! Or perhaps--"

"No!" Ellire snapped, face flushed. "No perhaps, maybes, or what ifs. Children shouldn't ask questions. And more importantly, I'm done talking about this." The firebender hopped off of Dandan in a bit of a hissyfit.

"You two alright back there?" Naka asked.

"Yeah. Everything's fine, I just felt like walking the rest of the way. Stretch my legs a bit."

"If you say so. We're nearly there anyway."

-x-

The sun had long since disappeared behind a mountain-lined horizon, making the area difficult to navigate in any particular direction. Several men in Chief Kumi’s charge were carrying torches just to see several feet in front of them. From not too far behind Kumi Blaise rode her ostrich horse in silence. The firebender had lost track of how long they’d been traveling, having only stopped briefly for lunch what seemed like ages ago.

The mixed feelings Blaise was experiencing regarding her former friends and allies had really put a damper on her mood. If Kumi could sense it she didn’t say anything, perhaps fearing that it wouldn’t stay for long if she did.

After what felt like entire lifetimes of traveling Kumi finally stopped in front of Blaise. Blaise looked up and saw that this was because a large object was blocking the majority of their pathway. Although it was hard to make out, being only partially lit from some ways away, Blaise’s eyes widened as she realized what the thing was and she hopped off of her ostrich horse. Blaise then ran up to the overturned wagon and dropped to her knees beside it.

The thing had belonged to Ellire and Naka all right. Blaise felt her hand along the cart’s wooden edge and stood up again to peer over it. With a snap of her fingers a small flame lit itself in the palm of her hand. The girl leaned over the wagon’s edge and used the fire as a flashlight to read over the all-too-familiar A Touch of Magic. Below the show’s title were three names, handpainted so many years ago. Except that Blaise’s had been blackened out. The firebender placed the palm of her free hand over the damaged wood in that area and pressed her fingertips to it. The bottom of Blaise’s lip quivered.

Why does this upset you? Aeron's familiar voice asked in Blaise's mind. She couldn't see the little green dragon amid the darkness, but it didn't matter. If anything, I should think it makes your task easier. They moved on. They are not your friends anymore, and I think a part of you knew that all along...

"It still hurts," Blaise whispered. "And knowing what I... what I might have to do... It doesn't make that any easier either."

Aeron took a deep breath. I understand.

Blaise shook her head slowly. "No. No, you don't understand - it doesn't matter what I choose to do. I'm trapped. Help Kumi or turn against her, kill Ellire or let her kill me... Whatever I choose, whatever happens, I lose either way. Wind up locking up in a cell or dead by the end of it all... I want to see more options than that, I really do, but... Again, it doesn't matter. Whatever happens, however things play out, I will have already lost."

But think of all the lives you could save. Everything you will give up for it: your friends, your freedom, even your life. Will not these things seem so small in comparison to the bigger picture? Blaise didn't look down, but she felt Aeron's scale-covered head brush up against her exposed ankle. You might feel like there's no point to it now, but if you stop Ellire... stop Sol... You will be a hero then. Hundreds of thousands of lives could be saved. And I don't think that's pointless at all.

"So that's it then?" asked Blaise sadly. "Everyone will get hurt, but you promise it'll be worth it in the end?"

There have been worse fates.

Suddenly the wagon in front of her lit up in a bright blaze. Blaise shrieked and jumped backwards. Her bottom lip quivered slightly as she watched the crackling flames wrap around the entire vehicle, melting away its tarp cover and licking at wooden edges. A dark cloud of smoke began to form like a chimney stack, disappearing into the navy sky above.

Blaise whipped her head around. “What the hell was that for?”

Kumi ignored her and climbed down from her own ostrich horse. “We’ll set up camp here. Make sure the first watch is covered. You four: scout out the area ahead and report back once you’ve finished. I want to be all packed up and ready to go again by sunrise, so whatever that means for you personally, get it done.”

“You didn’t have to torch their wagon,” Blaise said, getting into Kumi’s face.

“Why shouldn’t I? We have no further use for it, and it saved us the amount of time it would have taken to build our own campfire. I certainly hope you’re not having second thoughts about the whole thing, because we talked about this.”

Blaise frowned. “Why does everyone keep asking me that? I’m still here, aren’t I?”

“I don’t recall giving you much of a choice in that matter,” Kumi pointed out.

“Yeah, well.” Blaise looked as if she were about to say something else but ultimately decided against it and turned away.

“My sister,” Kumi called out, getting Blaise’s attention again.

“Pardon?”

“You asked why I was so hellbent on capturing Ellire and Naka. Old Ironfire… that’s what the boys call me, isn’t it? Because they think I’m just a big stick in the mud?”

Blaise hesitated before answering. “I don’t see how that’s relevant to siblings.”

“I used to be… Well, let’s just say you and I would’ve had an easier time getting along back then. I don’t remember having a real, genuine smile since before she died. Since before Ellire killed her.” Blaise squinted into Kumi’s eyes for a moment. She didn’t think the Chief of Police would make something up like that, but that didn’t sound like something Ellire would do, either. And if she had, wouldn’t Blaise have been around for it?

Well isn’t this an intriguing twist, Aeron mused, having climbed up Blaise’s back and now perched on the firebender’s shoulder.

“Shush,” Blaise instructed the dragon. And then to Kumi: “Ellire’s a lot of things, but she isn’t a killer.”

Not yet, anyway, sang Aeron.

“She probably doesn’t even realize what she did,” Kumi went on, staring into the campfire. “My sister… she was unique, I suppose you could say. I want to say that she was a firebender - that’s what my family told everyone - but she was different. Special. I’ve heard of a firebender’s powers taking a slightly different form, like lightning or flames of an unusual color, but not my sister’s. Her bending didn’t even look like fire at all. I almost want to say they were shadows, but… but everyone knows that’s not possible…” Kumi shook her head sadly. “Anyway. My mother and I decided to keep this a secret from the rest of the world. We were afraid they wouldn’t understand. That they’d call her a freak.”

“Why would they do that?” Blaised asked with a concerned look. “The Fire Nation is known for honoring the strong. Those whose gifts and talents put them above others.”

Kumi snorted. “That’s just the thing. My sister wasn’t strong. This power, firebending, whatever it was… It was killing her. It was little things at first. Nosebleeds, headaches. But then they got worse. We forbade her from using her power, but still every day she was coughing up pools blood. Finally one day a man came to us bearing a medicine that he said could cure her. We tried it out, and it was like a miracle. The symptoms stopped. My sister started to get healthy again. In fact, we were days away from celebrating her tenth birthday and one year anniversary of being a completely healthy child. The entire FNPD office was going to be there.”

“But…?”

“But then our house was robbed. They didn’t get anything really valuable, but our medicine cabinet had been raided. Within a week I had managed to track it down again at a nearby pawn shop, still entirely intact. But by then it was too late. Only two days before we walked in on my sister, lying face down on the floor in a pool of dark purple blood.”

Blaise was nearly moved to tears by this story herself. “Ellire did that?”

“According to the description the store owner gave our sketch artists.”

“I’m so sorry. She never told me about stealing medicine. We usually only took jewelry, silverware, china… things of a decorative nature. But nothing like that.” Blaise swallowed hard. “Your sister… Can I ask what she was called?”

“Vira,” Kumi sighed. “Her name was Vira.”

-x-

As the group traveled along it had become nearly impossible to see anything further than half a foot away. In order to keep on the path Ellire walked ahead of the group with the palm of her hand held out and serving as a torch. At long last the farmhouse became visible, a warm yellow light protruding from its windows.

They stopped in front of it and Ellire was just about to knock on the door when it swung open, nearly hitting her in the face.

"Missed me?" Myhja asked cheerily.

But the face of the girl standing in the doorway appeared less than please to see Myhja. She was about a head taller and at least several years older, wearing a gold-trimmed brown tunic, hunting boots, and forest green leggings. Her skin was pale and like Jairin, her light brown hair only went as far as her shoulders. If they hadn't known better, the group would've assumed she was related to the young earthbender.

"Myhja!" the stranger scolded. In one hand she was tightly clutching a wooden bow. "I was just about to go looking for you! We talked about this. You can't just go wandering around without telling me, especially after dark! It's dangerous this far from town!" The girl paused, only just noticing the others staring back at her blankly. She set her weapon down, hoping to make a better impression. "Oh. I see you've brought friends."

Myhja grinned. "Not friends, Pasha. Accomplices."

"I'm Naka," the airbender said, hopping off of her cow deer and shaking the newcomer's hand. "And behind me are Ellire in red, Jairin in blue, and Rei in the blue! Makes it really easy to tell us apart."

"We should start a band," Ellire joked sarcastically.

"We're... travelers," Naka went on. We got into a bit of trouble earlier with highway robbers and lost a lot. If it isn't too much trouble, we'd like to stay here for the night, and we promise to be out of your hair by the morning."

Pasha smiled. "Oh, no, it's no trouble at all! We don't get visitors very often, so it's always a pleasure. The guest room is big enough for two, but if the rest of your party wouldn't mind sharing with Myhja and I, there's plenty of space available. And food. Can I take your cow deer for you? We have a couple in the stables out back--"

"Oh, yeah, about that. These are actually yours," Naka corrected. "We um... borrowed them."

Pasha frowned. "Oh. Well, in that case Myhja can see that they're put back where they belong. Myhja, dear, make sure that the jackalope has plenty of room. If he doesn’t fit in the stables try underneath the awning in the back. Anyway, why don't you get yourselves inside and have a seat?” With a nod of her head gesturing them to follow, Pasha turned back inside and disappeared around a corner into another room. Naka, Jairin, and Rei dismounted and Myhja took their cow deer and Dandan’s reigns, leading them behind the farmhouse. The guests exchanged glances before stepping inside.

The farmhouse was fairly spacious, yet had a rather cozy feel about it. From the moment the girls stepped into the room they caught the sweet scent of whatever Pasha was cooking. The guests awkwardly seated themselves around a long wooden table and waited.

Naka twiddled her thumbs in silence for a moment. “So, um. Is this going to be like a normal gig, or…?”

Ellire wrinkled her nose. “I’m still deciding.”

“What, you mean like a robbery? No way!” Jairin hissed from across the table.

“Excuse us for not asking for your opinion on the matter, but you’re a bit biased,” Ellire pointed out.

“That’s not what I mean. It just doesn’t seem right, not after these people are helping us out like this.”

“Hey, maybe we don’t have to, okay?” Rei chimed in. “Didn’t Naka take some valuables from the guys who attacked us? Do you think if we sold those when we got into town we might have enough to replace the cart? You do still have them, right, Naka?”

The airbender hesitated before removing several gold and pearl necklaces and laying them down on the table. She paused for another second and then slipped off a bunch of rings. Next to be added to the pile were a fair amount of bracelets and, lastly, a little pouch filled with clanked with it hit the table and a few gold pieces spilled out.

Ellire chewed at the bottom of her lip. “Well, that might cover about half of it, assuming they’re even going to have something like what we’re used to when we get to town. I suppose we could go back to performing on the street, but it looks horribly tacky without a proper stage, which, cost aside, would take quite a fair about of work to recreate.”

“If worse comes to worse we can always become pirates,” offered Rei.

Ellire glared back. “We are not becoming pirates.”

“Why not? I thought it was a step up from street performing and petty theft.”

"Petty theft?" the firebender fumed. "What does that make piracy, then? Armed robbery? Look, I don't know how things worked in the Water Tribes, but elsewhere pirates don't exactly have a better reputation than your average con artist!"

"Two thieves, a runaway and an exile..." someone new said from behind the group. The girls fell silent, looking up to see Myhja hovering in the doorway. "Sounds like the beginning of a bad joke," she went on, stepping inside. She set a plate down in front of each of the others, who were apparently still holding their breaths. Naka less than inconspicuously slid the stolen jewelry back towards herself and dumped it into her shirt.

-x-

The dinner ended up going smoother than they would've imagined. Pasha was unbelievably friendly, and while Myhja occasionally said something that put nearly the entire room on edge, she didn't seem to pose much of a threat.

Ellire decided against their usual operation after all, claiming that the deciding factor was the family having little of value to them and that after all they'd been through that day they deserved a good night's sleep. Of course, she did highly recommend slipping anything easily conceivable that might be worth something into their pockets, but still. Baby steps.

"I know you're doing this for me," Jairin whispered when she and Ellire crossed paths bringing their dirty dishes to the kitchen. "Thanks."

Ellire rolled her eyes. "Don't flatter yourself. I've half a mind to go through with it and leave you behind."

"But you won't."

"Can I help?" Naka offered cheerily, joining Pasha in front of the sink.

Pasha smiled and handed the airbender a sponge. "Knock yourself out."

"Sorry if that seemed a little weird, it's just... Well, it's been quite some time since I've done anything ordinary, like washing dishes."

"You must be pretty busy as a traveling street performer."

Naka looked away. "Yeah... Something like that. Say, if you and Myhja are twins like you said, how come--"

"We don't look alike?" Pasha finished with a laugh. "Don't worry, we get that a lot."

-x-

A little later the four guest had moved into their temporary rooms. Ellire wasn't a fan of sharing a bed with a complete stranger, but Myhja didn't seem seen to mind as much. They hardly spoke a word to one another, and when Myhja had settled down, Ellire leaned forward to blow out her bedside candle. She stopped just before extinguishing it, bower, as Myhja had started to mutter some sort of cryptic chant under her breath:

Fire, fire, burning bright  
Deceiving all with her great light  
The more she glows, her shadow grows  
And snuffs the stars at night

Spirit, spirit, soon to rise  
Embodied darkness in disguise  
The world will choke on purple smoke  
Once fire leaves her eyes

Once she had finished the other girl grew quiet again and Ellire wondered if she had already fallen asleep. The firebender waited in silence for some time before leaning forward again and blowing out the candle.

-x-

Naka and Rei awoke to the crowing of a rooster owl. Sunlight was streaming into the guest room through a window above them. They had no idea for time it was, neither did they much care. At least for Naka the previous night had been perhaps the most sleep she'd gotten in months.

Finally forcing themselves to get up, the two girls reached the bottom of the stairs and were greeted by the friendly smell of pancakes being cooked. Ellire and Jairin were already at the table with their respective plates.

"No fair! You should've gotten me up sooner!" Naka let out, racing into the room.

Pasha could be heard from the kitchen: "Alright, alright, calm down! There's plenty to go around."

Rei entered the kitchen behind Naka and picked up a plate. Pasha was just about to serve then both when there was a knock at the front door. "Wonder who that could be," the woman muttered, rinsing her hands and then drying them off on a hand towel. She disappeared around the corner and Naka continued filling her plate where Pasha left off.

"Save some for the rest of us," Rei teased.

"The Fire Nation is here," Myhja said through a mouthful of food.

The others didn't seem bothered by this remark, but Ellire felt the hairs at the back of her neck stand up. Of course she thought Myhja to be quite far from sane, yet every once in a while caught the girl saying something with a truth behind it that she had no way of knowing. Just to be on the safe side, the firebender got up and whispered something into Naka's ear.

-x-

"I haven't seen either of those girls," Pasha was saying. "It's just my sister Mhyja and I. We don't get visitors often."

Chief of Police Kumi folded up the wanted posters and tucked them beneath her metal-clad arm. Just behind her the troop of Fire Nation officials patiently await her orders. There weren't a whole lot of them, but certainly more than Pasha would welcome onto her property without feeling threatened. "Very well. If that's the case then I trust you wouldn't mind if we had a look around? Just in case of any stowaways that you might've missed."

Pasha swalled hard. "I'd rather you didn't. Don't the police need a warrant for that sort of thing, anyway?"

"Typically, yes," answered Kumi. "But things work a bit differently in the Fire Nation. I suppose you could say we aren't as strict about rules and regulations this far from home."

Kumi smiled back at Pasha dangerously. Taking a deep breath, Pasha stepped aside, opening up the door further. "Of course. I hope you find what you came for." Just as an extra precaution, Pasha grabbed her bow and arrows off from the wall where they'd been hanging and threw them around her shoulder.

The second Kumi entered the farmhouse she began shouting out orders, demanding her troop to split off in each available direction and look everywhere. Apparently this included pulling out every possible drawer and littering their contents about the floor. Pasha let out a shriek and dove out of the way. Luckily no one else who had previously been in the room was currently visible.

Aeron, hoping to find them before Kumi or one of her lackeys did, had left Blaise's side and flown out of the farmhouse. Blaise followed followed suit, chasing the little dragon as he disappeared around the corner. Aeron led her to a set of stables in the back of the farm, where a giant jackalope was sleeping. Looking pleased with himself, Aeron perched on a nearby wooden fence. I'd say your friends are still here, he commented.

Blaise crept forward, but the crunching of dried grass beneath her feet woke the animal up. "Dandan?" she whispered.

With a loud chirping noise the jackalope stood up and took a step closer. Blaise was already reaching a hand out to pet him, but Dandan ignored it, completely nuzzling his gigantic, fuzzy gray face into Blaise's much smaller one by comparison. The firebender laughed and hugged onto him.

"I've missed you, bun!" she smiled. "I hope Ellire and Naka have been taking good care of you!"

Well, aren't you going to keep searching? pressed Aeron.

Blaise hesitated. "I haven't decided yet."

-x-

In that moment Ellire, Naka, Rei, Jairin, and for some reason Myhja were crammed inside of a bush just outside of the main structure. Ellire watched Blaise bond with Dandan through narrowed eyes. Of course she was the one leading the FNPD right to them. A part of her had always known no good would become of Blaise.

She then heard footsteps off to the side. Shifting their eyes over slightly, all five of the girls watched as Kumi stepped out into the yard, two policemen trailing her. "Find anything?" Old Ironfire called out to Blaise. "That might've been what they used to pull their wagon."

"I can't tell," Blaise lied.

Suddenly Naka began sniffling, as if holding back a sneeze. Rei frowned. "Don't you dare," she whispered. But she did dare.

Sorry, Naka mouthed back.

"Did you hear that?" one of the males asked.

"Shh!" Kumi scanned the area distrustfuly. Everyone held their breaths for what felt like an entire minute before the Chief of Police launched a fireball directly at the bush.

"Move!" Ellire shouted, pushing everyone out of the way just in time.

Kumi practically grinned ear to ear. "I don't care about the others, but don't let Ellire and Naka out of your sight!"

Ellire broke off from the group and began a mad dash towards the stables. It didn't take long before Kumi was upon her - the head of the FNPD was small but a lot quicker and more agile than people often gave her credit for. Ellire was knocked to the ground by tripping over a lasso-like stream of fire. Just before Kumi got into reaching distance the girl jumped up again, throwing fire-encased first in her direction. Kumi ducked to the side, swung a kick at Ellire in much the same manner, and this time Ellire rolled out of the way.

It wasn't hard to tell that both firebenders were evenly matched in hand-to-hand combat, and in order to get the advantage, Ellire picked up a fist full of dirt and flung it in Kumi's direction. This ended up doing very little to change the playing field, and so Ellire let out a wave of fire pellets just before running inside of the stables, hoping to use the cover to her advantage.

Ellire slid down to the floor and leaned her back against one of the stable walls, panting. She peeked out again several seconds later and was surprised to find her enemy nowhere in sight. Everything grew quiet save her breathing and the occasional mooing from one of the cow deer.

And the Ellire smelled it. 'It' was a sort of burning smell, like charred wood mixed with smoke. She glanced around the shelter but still saw nothing. And then Ellire pieced it together: Kumi was going to try smoking her out.

Ellire could now start to see a thick line of black clouds cover the stable's ceiling. The cow deer must've noticed too, because not too long afterwards they bolted out of their stables and exited the structure. Ellire popped her head over the stable that she was still in and this time she saw about a third of Kumi's army, waiting patiently just outside. Ellire could take maybe three or four of them, five max, but certainly not that many. Not all at once.

The smoke was piling up rather much now. The air grew thick and heavy, and Ellire started to cough. Ellire held a hand up, but something strange happened when she did so. The air seemed to clear in a small bubble around her and for half a second Ellire wondered if Naka was with her, airbending.

But then she realized she was doing it. And it wasn't the air she was bending, but the smoke itself. Was she... shadowbending smoke?

The police waited patiently outside for Ellire to come running out any minute now. But she didn't. Instead the smoke that had just about filled the entire barn retreated, forming a thick clump in the back where Ellire was standing, holding it above herself with raised arms. Before they knew what was happening she threw her arms forward, launching a stream of thick dark smoke directly at them like a flamethrower.

Without any further trouble Ellire stepped out of the stables and over the men, all of them pressed against the ground and gagging, as if the couldn't stand up again until they remembered how to breathe.

Out of the corner of her eye Ellire spotted Kumi. The older woman looked as if she was in the midst of an internal debate over whether to run away or fight back. Kumi eventually decided on the latter, and with a snap of her fingers two good sized balls of fire ignited around her fists. Ellire crouched down and began concentrating really hard on something. And then the fire on Kumi’s hands died out, as if water had been dumped over them.

But something else was happening. It was her shadow. It began percolating slightly and then peeled itself up from the ground like a strip of cloth. The higher it rose the more it thickened, until it entirely matched Kumi in stature and shape. The shadow creature was entirely black and translucent, as if it were a ghost, and tiny purple specks glowed in place of its eyes. Her eyes wide with terror, Kumi turned to run from the creature, back towards the farmhouse.

The shadow chased after Kumi, cutting her off so that she had nowhere to go. With a clenched jaw Kumi hurled a stream of flames at the thing, but they hadn't the slightest effect on it. Ellire raised an arm and the creature did, too, grabbing Kumi in a chokehold and slamming her against the back wall. With little effort the shadow slipped into the wall’s flat surface, its silk-like black hands still wrapped around Kumi’s throat as she squirmed.

“Stop!” a familiar voice shrieked from behind. “Ellire, let her go!”

Ellire whipped her head around to see Blaise standing a few feet away. She was holding onto Naka by her upper arm. Her free hand was an orangey-white color, like a piece of metal held in a furnace, and hovering dangerously close to the airbender’s face.

Ellire searched Blaise’s face for any sign of bluffing, but again, it was never easy to tell what her old friend’s intentions were, even back before they started keeping secrets. Blaise was incredibly indecisive, and for all Ellire knew might still be on her side. But she didn’t want to take risks. Not with Naka’s safety. After an intense stare-down Ellire relaxed her arm, freeing Kumi, who fell to the ground with a thud.

“I didn’t want Aeron to be right,” Blaise said, her voice much softer now.

Before Elire could ask what she meant by this a hot wall of flames knocked her to the ground. Ellire spit out a mouthful of dust. The shadowbender’s eyes shifted up to see that Kumi was upon her now.

The Chief of Police flipped Ellire onto her stomach and secured her wrists together behind her back, keeping the girl pinned down with a knee. Once she was sure her opponent couldn’t harm her anymore, Kumi leaned forward and whispered into Ellire’s ear:

“What are you?”


	6. Beginning of the End

“So how’s this gonna work, exactly?” Blaise was saying as she marched into Chief Kumi’s quarters. They were back on the ship they’d arrived in and had just started circling back to the Fire Nation under an hour ago. It was night, Ellire and Naka were currently stashed somewhere below deck, and Blaise hasn’t seen or heard from Aeron since the battle. “You take me home, I sign a couple papers, then we part as unlikely friends?” Blaise went on. The firebender stopped in the doorway upon spotting Kumi, who was seated in front of a wooden desk with a half-filled glass in her hand and its opened bottle sitting within reaching distance.

Kumi jumped upon hearing Blaise and accidentally knocked the bottle over. Instead of picking it up she looked at Blaise, her eyes glazed over. “You’ve been drinking,” Blaise observed, hurrying over to pick up the spilled bottle.

“Congratulations, Captain Obvious,” Kumi sipped away carelessly. “At the rate you’re going you might want to look into trying for the rank of detective once we get back to headquarters.”

Blaise was surprised to see that nothing had escaped the bottle onto the wooden floor, but upon further inspection she noticed it had already been emptied. “You’ve been drinking a lot,” the girl rephrased. “I don’t get it. Shouldn’t you be happy that Ellire and Naka are behind bars? Some of the rest of the crew is on deck celebrating. ‘Justice is served’ and all that good stuff.”

Kumi shook her head with a look of bewilderment. “I didn’t even know. All this time and it never even occurred to me…” She sipped again.

“I’m sorry? Know what?”

“Purple flames… No, shadows… They were the same. Ellire and Vira… They had the same power.” She looked to Blaise as if expecting her to have some kind of explanation. “What does it all mean?” Kumi demanded. “If they’re the same, why did my sister have to die, and yet Ellire is alive and well and twice as deadly as Vira ever would’ve been?”

Blaise clicked her tongue in her cheek. “Well. Alive, yes, but I’m not so sure about ‘well’. She’s certainly had better days.” Kumi glared back at Blaise. “Sorry… Hey, Chief?”

Kumi took another swig and frowned into her emptied glass. “What do you want from me?”

Blaise sat down on the edge of Kumi’s desk facing the glass-lined wall that looked out on the sea. It had become too dark out to clearly distinguish the sea from the sky, she could still hear the ocean’s crashing waves against the ship. “Did Vira ever mention the name Sol?”

Kumi choked on the new bottle that she had dug out from inside her desk. “How could you possibly know that?”

“So she did? Interesting.”

“Sol was my sister’s imaginary friend. She used to say that he was helping her, making her stronger…” Kumi made to take another sip but Blaise stopped her by grabbing at the Chief’s wrist.

“Chief Kumi,” Blaise began slowly, “I know you don’t want to hear this right now, but… I don’t think Ellire was the one responsible for your sister’s murder.”

-x-

The tension was making Ellire uncomfortable. On top of having been injected with something to suppress her bending, hands still bound behind her back so tight that she could swear the blood circulation was getting cut off, and having been thrown into an entirely heat resistant jail cell, Naka hadn’t stopped crying once since they’d gotten there.

After what seemed like ages of trying Ellire finally managed to summon enough power to singe through the rope. With an exasperated sigh she flung her arms out to the side. The burnt bits of rope fell to the floor and she began rubbing at her sore wrists.

“Hey, let me get yours,” Ellire said, reaching over towards Naka.

“Don’t touch me!” her friend shrieked and jerked away.

Ellire recoiled. “Naka…” She tried meeting the airbender’s eyes, but Naka looked away. “Is this about the shadowbending thing? Because I promise you, I had everything under control. And I was going to tell you too, sooner or later, but it just didn’t seem like the right time and I didn’t want you to take it the wrong way and--”

“Shadowbending?” Naka interrupted. “Is that what you call it?”

Ellire swallowed hard. “It’s not what you think.”

“I don’t know what to think,” Naka shot back. “You had the FNPD Chief Officer pinned against the wall in a chokehold without even batting an eyelash! You would’ve killed her if it weren’t for Blaise!”

The firebender exhaled slowly. “I was trying to protect this family. I wanted to protect you.”

“How do I know you’re not the one I need protecting from?”

Ellire and Naka had had their fair share of disagreements before, but this was different. The way that Naka looked at Ellire now… It went beyond a quarrel they could resolve in one sitting. It was fear. Naka was afraid of Ellire.

Now Ellire was almost in tears. “You can’t mean that,” she whimpered. “Naka. You know me.”

Naka met Ellire’s eyes for the first time that evening and shook her head sadly. “I don’t think you even know you anymore.”

-x-

Back at the farm, Rei and Jairin sat cross-legged in the middle of the bit of grass-covered ground that hadn’t caught fire earlier that day. Thanks to Rei’s assistance with bending, the group had put out the last of the fires a couple hours ago. Now they could think of nothing to do but sip at mugs of hot chocolate that Pasha had brought over for them and reflect upon the day’s events.

“I can’t sit around useless like this anymore,” Jairin finally let out, standing up.

Rei squinted up at her. “Plan to take on the entire Fire Nation squad by yourself, do you?”

“No! Well, yes. Maybe. I don’t know!” Jairin huffed. “It sounds better than sitting around feeling guilty, at any rate.”

“There was nothing else you could do,” Rei said sadly. “Be thankful that you two weren’t arrested as well. Why are you so quick to try and help out your former enemies, anyway?”

Jairin hesitated for a brief moment before plopping down again. She sighed. “Back on the road, when we got attacked… Ellire didn’t have to save me, you know. I know she hated me, probably still does, but she came back anyway. It just feels like I owe her for that, you know? I don’t know. Maybe I’m being stupid.” The earthbender kept her eyes fixed on the ground. “What’s the plan going to be now, anyway? I can’t go home. This had been the most exciting thing to ever happen to me, and I don’t want it to end like this.”

Rei pursed her lips. “Well, I suppose I was just planning to keep heading south. You can come with me, if you don’t mind the cold.”

Ignoring the waterbender’s offer, Jairin jumped to her feet once more. “I don’t care what you think, I’m going going after Ellire and Naka. If I can’t get them back they’ll have to take me too. I’ll… I’ll figure out something, you’ll see. And don’t you dare try stopping me!”

Rei frowned. “Well now we have a conflict of interests. See, I’m morally obligated to keep you from wandering off on your own and getting yourself killed by a bunch of firebenders.”

“Then come with me.”

“What?”

“You heard me. Come with me, and we’ll rescue them together. We can strategize on the way.”

The waterbender hesitated. “I’m not so sure that’s a great idea.”

“Okay, suit yourself.” Jairin gave a little wave a turned to leave.

“Wait!” Rei shouted, jumping up as well. “Do you even have a plan for finding them? They could be anywhere by now.”

“We had no problem tracking those two like, a week ago, remember?”

Rei sighed defeatedly. “Fine. I’ll go get Dandan, and you can explain to Pasha this brilliant and suicidal plan of yours.”

“Oh, thank you so much!” Jairin exhaled. She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Rei in a tight embrace. The waterbender simply stood there looking confused for the several seconds that it took the younger girl to let go.

-x-

Naka didn’t say a word to Ellire after that, choosing instead to sit in the cell’s corner and stare off into space. Ellire was unable to do the same, and now that her hands were free she put all of her effort into firing as many different forms of fire into the heat-resistant cell door. There weren’t even any shadows in the room to work with, but even so, Ellire tried bending those until her knuckles were caked in blood.

After what felt like ages of attempt after attempt Ellire slammed her back against the cell wall and admitted defeat. Sweating and out of breath, the shadowbender slid down to a crouch. She remained there while she watched Naka, who had hardly budged an inch this entire time. With legs still trembling slightly, Ellire used the wall to pick herself up again and pressed up against the cell door, where a single barred window was the only way to see out of the prison. Time for a new attempt.

“Psst,” she hissed, hoping to get the attention of the single police officer she could see standing guard on the other side. Ellire had to stand on her tiptoes to even see over the edge. “Psst!” she tried again, this time louder.

The guard looked as if he were determinedly trying to ignore her. After a third time he finally whipped his head around. “What? I’m not helping you out, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“Oh, no, I’m sure. You’re probably getting paid way too much to even consider it.”

He squinted but didn’t come any closer. “Why are you bothering me, then?”

Instead of answering, Ellire shot back another question: “What’s your name?” Beat. “C’mon. Humor me.”

Ellire didn’t think it possible for the man to slit his eyes even further, and yet that was exactly what he did. “Greg,” he finally replied.

Ellire practically choked on laughter. “I’m sorry, but what was that?”

“I said my name is Greg.”

“You’re joking, right? You’ve got to be joking. Oh, man, that was a good one! Greg.” Ellire’s lip quivered as she tried to refrain from smiling. “I mean, if you’re going to lie to me about it, at least make something up that’s partially believable.”

“That’s really my name,” the guard frowned.

Ellire grew serious again. “For real? Is that at least short for something? Like Gregarth or, I don’t know, Gregoran?” The man didn’t respond. Instead he repositioned himself on the other side of a huge wooden pillar, where Ellire could no longer half-see him. “Wait!” she called after Greg desperately. “I was kidding! It’s a beautiful name!” When he didn't answer, Ellire banged her fist against the wall. “Dammit,” she muttered.

-x-

Once Rei and Jairin had reached the edge of the canyon, they stood there staring at it for a good while in silence. “So either the enemy had a bunch of earthbenders on hand that they kept hidden from us,” Jairin finally guessed out loud, “or they went around the long way.”

“Well I don’t see a bridge, so my vote is on the latter.”

“Perhaps on the way down, but you won’t find the fire people there now,” a third voice chimed in.

The two benders let out a collective scream and clung to each other only to find Myhja standing about a foot away from them.

Rei blinked in surprise and stepped away from Jairin. “How did… What are you even doing here, Myhja? I thought Pasha made it perfectly clear that you aren’t coming, and yet here you are on foot in almost no time at all.”

“And how do you mean, we won’t find them there?” added Jairin.

“They took a boat back to the Fire Nation,” Myhja explained calmly. “She told me and I guessed you’d want to know, as amusing as it might be to watch you both bark up the wrong tree.”

The earthbender squinted. “Who told you?”

“Raava.”

“...What?”

“Look,” Rei began, “I’m sorry if we don’t believe you, but you’d have absolutely no way of knowing that.”

“Do you really think the Avatar would lie to you about something like that?”

“For the love of…” Rei flung her arms out to her sides in exasperation. “YOU AREN’T THE AVATAR! So stop saying stuff like that!”

“How would you know?” huffed Myhja.

“I just do, that’s how! You aren’t the Avatar because the current Avatar is Roku from the Fire Nation, okay? Is that so hard to grasp?”

Myhja pouted. “But I am the Avatar! Raava told me so, and said that I must be the bond between the human and spirit worlds.” The girl wrinkled her nose in thought. “She also kept referring to me as Avatar Wan, but I don’t know what that was about.”

“Hey, rather than fighting about this like children, why don’t we try and find out if Myhja really does know what she’s talking about?” Jairin suggested. “I mean, it’s kind of the best lead we have to go on right now.”

Rei made a face. She then began climbing back onto Dandan. “Alright, fine. Let Myhja lead us to the coastline. If there’s a Fire Nation ship nearby I should be able to tell from there.”

-x-

The three of them, four including the jackalope, reached the shore within just under an hour. It wasn’t very impressive for a beach - just a thin strip of sand separating the crashing waves from the grass-covered ledge they’d come from, but it was technically a beach nonetheless. From that point Rei hopped off of Dandan’s back and crouched up against the water. The waterbender touched the tips of her fingers to it and shut her eyes. After a couple seconds she opened them again.

“Well what do you know,” she muttered. And then to the others: “There is a ship out there unlike anything in the Earth Kingdom; vast, wooden, yet coated in steel, and heading Southwest towards the Fire Nation. But it’s pretty far out. I could only just still feel its presence on the water.”

“So what now?” asked Jairin. “We don’t exactly have a raft at our disposal, if you were thinking about using your bending to turn something into a speedboat.”

“So are you tagging along?” Rei asked Myhja.

The other girl shook her head. “It’s difficult to see the path ahead. So much smoke… a growing darkness… It would be easier for you both to turn back. Go your separate ways. But I know you cannot do that now. The basket’s already half-woven. But Myhja will stay here, where it’s safe. Myhja has already played her role. What happens next has been written.”

“What’s the loon going on about now?” Rei whispered to Jairin.

The earthbender glared back. “It’s alright, Myhja. Chasing after a Fire Nation ship probably isn’t the most clever thing to do anyway, so I don’t blame you for wanting to sit out. Not to mention how Pasha would be worried sick about you. Speaking of, do you think you can bring Dandan back to her? I doubt he’d do very well at sea, and I trust he’ll be much better taken care of by you two than if we were to just leave him behind.”

Myhja smiled. “Of course. I love jackalopes! So fluffy, so nice!” The girl hugged onto Dandan’s thick neck and was licked across the entirety of her face with a giant wet tongue.

Jairin grinned and looked back at Rei. She shifted her weight onto one hip with crossed arms.. “So again I ask: what now?”

“Now we ask for help.”

Jairin looked confused at this reply, but said nothing. She watched intently as Rei took a shell necklace from around her neck and blew into it. No sound seemed to come from the thing, but she continued to do this for quite a bit regardless.

“Over there!” Myhja squealed, pointing. Jairin, too, noticed something moving along the horizon line. It was like a stream of bubbles, growing wider as it approached the beach, until whatever was making them broke out from underneath the water and flopped a little ways onto the sand in front of Rei. There were two of them. Large, grayish brown creatures with darker spots and speckles splashed about their backs.

“Manatee seals,” the waterbender explained with a proud look about her. She stroked the top of the first one’s shiny head and it made a sort of chirping noise. “We go way back. That’s how I got here from the Water Tribe, you know.”

“So these are your friends, then?” Jairin smiled. “Do they have names.”

“Well. Yes and no. They all look kinda similar and I’d hate to get them mixed up, so I mostly just call all of them Loosha.”

The earthbender raised an eyebrow. “I don’t see how that’s any better than not naming them at all. So, do you just… ride them like ostrich horses, or…?”

“Essentially. They’re just a little harder to keep a firm hold on. Also I hope you don’t mind getting a little wet. And by a little I mean very.”

“Oh, joy.”

Once the two benders had managed to more or less successfully mount their manatee seals, they headed out after the Fire Nation ship as fast as the animals could go (plus the occasional current booster, courtesy of Rei).

-x-

“Open the door,” Kumi commanded loudly, stomping her way into the lower deck.

Blaise chased after her frantically. “Uh, I’m not so sure this is a good idea!” she wailed. “Maybe you should talk to Aeron about it instead? I’m not exactly sure where the little bugger’s run off to, but he knows a lot more on the issue than I do, so before you go jumping to any conclusions…”

Ignoring the other firebender, Kumi marched right up to the guard and somehow still appeared to be all in his face, despite the top of her head only reaching the man’s neck. “Well?” she demanded. “Didn’t you hear me? Open it!”

“Y-Yes, Chief!” Greg stammered, fumbling about with the keys in the hurry that the iron-clad woman had put him in.

As soon as the cell was unlocked, Ellire didn’t even get enough of a head start against Kumi, who grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked at it. With her other arm she grabbed at Ellire’s shoulder and slammed her against the cell wall. Kumi’s hand was heated and Ellire felt as if a hole were being burnt right through her skin.

“Ouch!” the shadowbender yelped. She grit her teeth, trying to pretend that she didn’t notice the searing pain as much. “What the hell, Ironfire?” Ellire spat. “Don’t I at least get a fair trial before we skip right along to torture? I know my rights. Or has the Fire Nation too low a budget to afford lawyers now?”

“Stop it!” Naka screeched, struggling to her feet despite the bound hands that she wouldn’t allow Ellire to free earlier. “You’re hurting her!”

“I sure am,” Kumi said, glaring into Ellire’s dark eyes.

“Kumi, listen to her! That’s enough!” Blaise hurried into the cell next to Kumi and ripped the woman’s hand off of Ellire. A black and red handprint remained where it had been. “Are you deliberately giving her third degree burns?!”

“It’s not her I’m trying to get a message to,” Kumi explained bitterly. And to Ellire she shouted: “What is he?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” moaned Ellire.

“Oh, I think you sure as hell do. Sol. The spirit. I’d like word with him and you’re going to give it to me!”

Ellire tried to back up into the room’s corner. “It doesn’t work like that!” she shot back.

Before Blaise had time to pull her back, Kumi had lunged forward again and punched Ellire hard enough to knock her out. Ellire fell to the ground with a thunk and lay perfectly still for some time. Everyone in the general vicinity held their breaths and waited - some to see if she would stir again, and others to see if she would not.

Naka inched forward and crouched beside her friend with a worried look. No matter how bad their dispute was earlier, nothing would stop her from caring. “Ellire…” she whispered. “Ellire, are you alright?”

It was quiet for a couple seconds, and then the shadowbender’s head popped up again. But there was something very different about her eyes. They were a very bright purple, and not just her irises, either. It was very much like the Avatar state, with the entire eye giving off that eerie glow. Naka stumbled backwards and nearly fell over in surprise, but Ellire stood up and pushed out an arm that sent Naka whizzing across the room. The airbender hit the opposite wall and crumpled onto the floor. She then locked eyes with Kumi and grinned.

“You asked for me?”

-x-

Ellire had no idea how long she’d been out. When she came to her head was still throbbing and she couldn’t see straight for a couple seconds. Ellire sat up and immediately curled up into a ball again, praying that the dizziness went away quickly. When it faded enough for her to feel comfortable standing up, she used the wall to pull herself to back to her feet and then glanced around the jail cell. It was entirely empty, but thankfully the door was still…

Well no, it wasn’t exactly open, but that was mostly do to the fact that the door was no longer there. In its place there was a large, circular hole with charred edges, like it had been blown open from the inside. Cautiously, Ellire crept out of the cell and into the open lower deck. It, too, seemed deserted. The bender took a step forward only to discover that a thin layer of what was presumably seawater lined the wooden floorboards. She glanced down at it and was somewhat surprised to find a dull orangey red glow just below where she was standing.

Ellire glanced down at the palms of her hands and realized that she was, in fact, the glowing thing in the room. It would seem she was back in the spirit world, her actual body still sound asleep. Or, you know, lying on the prison floor unconscious.

“Sol?” she asked, hands cupped over her mouth. Being out of that cage was great, even if the girl suspected it would only be for a little while, but even so, the rest of the ship gave her an uneasy feeling. “Sol?” Ellire called out again. Was the cat trying to play games with her or something? Because Ellire found this quite far from funny.

The shadowbender began ascending the flight of stairs leading to the ship’s upper deck. It was at this point that she could hear shouting and the occasional scream. Quickening her pace, Ellire stepped out into the open, where she could now see Kumi’s crew running about frantically. At first Ellire assumed they were combating some kind of storm, although it was unlike anything she had seen before. The crashing waves were almost black in color and thick, purple stormclouds spiraled out from directly above the vessel. A dark fog made it difficult to make things out from too far away, and several pieces of the ship had snapped and fallen over, most of them still burning. Now beginning to panic herself, Ellire couldn’t decide what sounded more appealing to her: ducking back downstairs or trying to ask someone how she could help out.

Suddenly something rather large came flying towards her and Ellire dodged to the side just in time to avoid it. Looking behind her she saw that it was a person - one of the Fire Nation police officials, to be more specific. The man disappeared overboard, but there was no splash where Ellire expected to hear one. This was explained when she saw him fly up again and land safely on two feet. Naka rushed to his side. “Are you alright?”

“Yes, yes, I’m fine!” the man insisted, hurrying back into the fray of things. “Keep up the good work!”

Ellire’s eyes lit up. “Naka!” she exclaimed, practically sprinting over. “Naka, what’s going on? What happened after Kumi attacked me, and why are you out here helping them battle a thunderstorm after everything they did to us?”

But Naka didn’t answer. At first Ellire thought she was being ignored, and tried desperately to beg for her friend’s attention, when it suddenly occurred to the girl that perhaps Naka didn’t even know she was there. It was as if the airbender couldn’t see or hear Ellire, and she was trying to reach her from the opposite side of a glass wall. With an outstretched arm Ellire made to grab Naka’s shoulder, but it fell right through like she were a ghost.

“Right. Spirit world.” Ellire muttered disappointedly. “Does that mean I have to first find my body, then? It must be around here somewhere…” The firebender looked around, but the only familiar face she could see was that belonging to the policeman who called himself Greg. And so Ellire wandered around in the purple and black fog, disoriented and on a quest for where her body had been stashed, until she heard a voice that she recognized.

“Well, well. How pleasant for you to be joining us, Ellire.”

“Sol?” Ellire spun around, but what she saw wasn’t the giant leopard she had expected. The experience was more like looking into a mirror, except that her reflection didn’t glow in the way that she did aside from its eyes, which were a fluorescent purple. As far as other differences went, the golden clip that she always wore had been removed from her double’s hair, and its usual red attire had been swapped out with a long and elegant black dress that had a purple shine to it when it caught the moon’s light. Ellire’s face went blank. “Um. Sol?” she asked again.

“Admiring my new meat suit, I see,” the copy purred in a voice that was definitely Sol’s. “You know, I thought I would have a harder time adjusting to a female form, but yours turned out to a refreshingly snug fit. Much better than a child’s body that could barely contain my power for mere seconds before petering out.”

“I-I don’t understand,” Ellire stammered. “Why did you take my form?”

Sol sneered. “You really don’t get it, do you, princess? I was using you. I could only slip into your skin once I was absolutely sure that it could support me. Potential shadowbenders are quite a rare find. But you… You danced so easily into my paws, and for that I am grateful.”

Ellire clenched her fists. “So essentially I was your train ticket into the human world? What business do you have here, anyway?”

“Whatever business I like. Your home is fragile, and so are its inhabitants. Their emotions are like glass - knock over one and the rest will shatter, too. Pain, anger, fear, hopelessness… These are the things that fuel my power. And that is something that we have in common, Ellire.”

“I’m nothing like you!” Ellire shot back. “I would never hurt somebody who didn’t deserve it!”

“Oh, but Ellire, you already have. That’s what you’re best at.”

Ellire had just started to disagree with the dark spirit when Chief Kumi spotted Sol. “There she is!” Kumi shouted, pointing right through Ellire at the creature.

Sol smirked. “In any case, I have an appointment to keep. Do enjoy your stay in the spirit world. After a couple thousand years you’ll start to understand why I was oh so very eager to break out.”

Now joined by two other officers and Blaise, a wall of fire shot out towards Ellire. She didn’t have time to get out of the way, but luckily it had no impact on her spiritual form. Sol sprung into the air and shot a jet-like stream of something black from the palm of his hand. It wrapped around one of the men like a giant tentacle. He was then thrown back down to the ground, the impact hard enough to snap some of the floorboards. Ellire covered her mouth in horror.

“Naka, run!” she screamed at her friend, who was currently ducking behind the ship’s mast. “You can’t fight him! Run!”

But the airbender didn’t hear. She started running towards where Sol was hovering, preparing to launch a gust of wind in his direction. Just before she got close enough Greg jumped in front of her and hugged onto the girl. Just in time, too, because only a fraction of a second later a large crack ripped through the center of the ship. The half that they were on tilted backwards, and Naka and Greg slid down it at a rapidly increasing angle. Ellire lost her footing and tumbled over the ship’s railing as soon as it was no longer level.

The firebender hit the dark water and suddenly everything grew unnaturally quiet. It looked a murky green from underneath, and the bottom of the broken ship was jet black, with loose pieces of wood and steel sinking all around her. Thanks to being in the spirit world still, breathing wasn’t a problem for Ellire, which was a strange sensation to her. The real issue was the fact that she couldn’t seem to swim and higher up. The girl remained helpless in the sea, slowly floating lower and lower, until a strange figure glowing brightly swam up beside her and took her arm. A white light blanketed everything that Ellire could see and in the moments that followed, the girl was no longer sure if she were alive or dead.

-x-

The scene Ellire woke up to was rather different from the one she last remembered. She was lying down in a field of tall grass and white and pink flowers. The sky was a clear blue, streaked with little puffs of cloud and a near blinding sun. She still felt dizzy, but less so. All of a sudden Ellire became aware of a second person kneeling over her, and she scrambled upright.

“Who’re you?” the firebender demanded.

The stranger was a little girl, much younger than Jairin, with dark brown hair held up in pigtails. She was wearing a maroon dress trimmed with golden ribbons that tied into a little bow at her collar. The girl smiled. “You can call me Vira.”

Ellire squinted for a moment before her eyes widened. “You’re the chick who saved me! Or at least, I think that’s what you were doing.” She abruptly lept to her feet. “Oh, god! Naka, Blaise… Are they alright? I have to go back!”

“Your friends will be fine. They may have lost the battle, but the war is far from over.”

Ellire scanned her eyes around the area. It was unlike anything she had seen outside of a fairytale book. “Where am I?” she breathed.

“The spirit world.”

“Nice try,” Ellire snorted. “I’ve been to the spirit world quite a few times myself, and let me tell you, it looks nothing like this.”

“Where you’ve been is the veil in between,” explained Vira. “Somewhat of a no man’s land between the two worlds. The real deal is much more impressive, if I do say so myself.”

Ellire couldn’t decide exactly where she wanted to go, so instead she just plopped down again. “Hey. Weren’t you all white and lit up earlier?”

“Yes, and you were a sunset orange. The veil has that effect on people.”

“So. Airbender, or…?”

“Ghost.”

“Oh.” Ellire nodded understandingly. “Wait, what?”

-x-

Time almost didn’t seem to exist in the real spirit world. Vira sat beside Ellire for some time, carefully explaining everything that had happened up to that point. What Sol had tried to do with her so long ago, and how he was more successful this time around. That there was nothing she could do in the human world - not in this state, anyway.

“No wonder Kumi hates my guts so much,” Ellire sighed. “She thinks I had something to do with your death.”

“Well, taking that medicine certainly didn’t help, but Sol was bound to make his move sooner or later. I guess… he wasn’t kidding about making me better, though. There is no sickness in this dimension.”

Ellire looked at Vira sadly. “You sound a lot older than you look, you know.”

“What can I say?” Vira chuckled. “Dying helps put a lot into perspective.” The girl’s face fell again and she stared at Ellire’s shoulder.

Noticing this, the firebender tried to cover the burnt handprint. “I’m fine,” she insisted.

“Did Sol do that do you?”

“No, but I think it was directed at him. Courtesy of your sister.”

“...I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.”

There was an uncomfortable silence before Ellire stood up again. “Well? You said we’d be useless against Sol in the human world, but I’m sure as hell not sitting around here and marveling at the clouds for any longer than I need to. What’s the plan? There is a plan, right?”

Vira pursed her lips for a moment before replying. “I think I know someone who can help.”

“Good, then let’s hurry up and go ask them!” Ellire pressed.

“Why don’t you ask him yourself?”

Vira got up and pointed to the sky, where a dark shape was quickly increasing in size as it flew closer. As it came into view Ellire could now tell that it was a dragon. The enormous animal landed several feet in front of the girls, knocking up a large cloud of dirt just before it folded a pair of majestic green wings behind its back.

Vira nodded to the beast in greeting. “Welcome home, Aeron.”


End file.
